bankernas

Bankernas is a Swedish genitive plural form used to indicate possession by more than one bank. It denotes that something belongs to the banks, rather than to a single bank. In Swedish, the definite plural of bank is bankerna (the banks), and the possessive is formed by adding the suffix -s to that form, yielding bankernas (the banks’). The word typically precedes a noun to specify what belongs to the banks, for example bankernas kunder (the banks’ customers), bankernas regler (the banks’ rules), or bankernas risker (the banks’ risks).

The use of bankernas is common in financial writing, regulation, and journalism when referring to assets, obligations, or actions attributed to banking groups rather than to one institution alone. It contrasts with bankerna, which simply means the banks (the institutions themselves). For instance, bankernas kapital refers to the banks’ capital, while bankernas tillsyn refers to the banks’ supervision.

Etymologically, bankernas is formed from bankerna plus the possessive suffix -s, a standard pattern in Swedish for creating possessives from definite plural nouns. As a grammatical form, it does not designate a specific organization or entity; its meaning is determined entirely by context. When translating or interpreting, the exact sense of bankernas depends on the surrounding noun and the broader topic, typically rendering it as “the banks’” or “of the banks.”