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Sveriges Riksbank
Designing Resilient It Systems for Public Missions and Financial Stability
The Riksbank is Sweden’s central bank. Its mission is to ensure that inflation is low and stable over time, contributing to the stability and efficiency of the financial system. The Riksbank also issues Sweden's banknotes and coins. The Riksbank is an authority under the Riksdag (parliament) located in Stockholm and has about 600 employees.
Within this national mandate, the Riksbank’s IT and Digitalisation Department plays a central role. The department combines secure and modern engineering practices with resilient, stable operations—enabling innovation without compromising reliability. The Riksbank is accelerating digital transformation with clear intent. Data is a strategic asset, while an AI roadmap aligns innovation, security and social responsibility.
In recent years, the Riksbank has also attracted increasing interest from the broader IT and technology community, driven by the opportunity to work on issues that truly matter—securing Sweden’s financial system and supporting societal stability.
Mats Eklund is a senior public sector technology leader with more than three decades of management experience across government, defence, finance, public health and large private organizations. In his role as Chief Information Officer at Sveriges Riksbank, he leads IT and digital services. His background includes CIO roles across Swedish government agencies, senior leadership during Sweden’s initial COVID response at the Public Health Agency and long-term responsibility for public sector work at major Nordic IT firms, including Tietoevry.
This feature highlights Eklund’s professional journey and leadership focus. He reflects on leading technology teams during high-pressure public missions, working closely with external partners and supporting national functions tied to financial stability and public health preparedness.
Tracing the Path to Technology Leadership
My career sits at the intersection of technology and public responsibility. I have worked across government and private sector roles that serve public institutions, gaining a clear view of how national needs translate into policy and execution.
Early roles were deeply technical, where reliability, structure and long-term planning mattered more than speed. These environments shaped my management style and showed how technology choices affect society at scale. As responsibilities grew, my focus shifted from systems to people. Leading change, aligning specialists around shared goals and building trust across organizations became central.
Today, I lead with a long-term perspective, a strong sense of mission and the belief that effective technology leadership depends on clear purpose and disciplined execution.
Digital Resilience that Safeguards Nations
The Riksbank operates in a constant cyber threat environment. As Sweden’s financial backbone, digital resilience is a core priority. Despite persistent threats, the Riksbank has experienced no incidents disrupting operations or enabling unauthorized access, thanks to our investments in cybersecurity and information security.
At Riksbank, our emphasis is on the human factor in cybersecurity through continuous training and regular cyber exercises involving leadership and operational teams. A key strategic decision was to reduce reliance on foreign public cloud providers. Sensitive and unique data is stored on infrastructure fully controlled within Sweden. IT operations are outsourced to CGI while data and infrastructure remain under strict national control, reducing legal and geopolitical risk.
Recent global events have sharpened the focus on resilience, security and geopolitics. Significant time, effort and investment go into ensuring that systems remain stable, secure and uninterrupted.
The Riksbank has modernized its data architecture through a centralized data lake, enabling flexible analytics and faster decisions. The data platform is built on modern open source products and container technology, which are key to its success, as well as consistent data classification.
AI represents the next important phase, tightly governed to ensure security and compliance. External AI tools may only use public data, while sensitive data and certain foreign applications are restricted and used solely on prem.
All digital traffic is continuously monitored through a Security Operations Center. Threats are detected in real-time and compromised devices are isolated automatically. A balanced technology model combines selective cloud use with full control over critical services, enabling innovation without sacrificing stability.
Building the IT Ecosystem of the Future
The Riksbank's vision is that we want to be an "open and resilient central bank in the forefront". To achieve this, we will in the coming years:
• Harness the potential of data
• Build capacity that increases our capacity to act
• Strengthen preparedness across the financial system
• Establish partnerships to strengthen our transition
AI adoption follows a clear roadmap focused on monetary policy, financial stability and payment security. Automation improves data processing and reporting, while impact is measured through time savings, quality and cost outcomes. Faster data flows and agile methods have reduced analysis cycles from weeks to days.
A critical enabler of this transformation is clear direction from the board and executive leadership. They have explicitly embedded data-driven decision-making, digital maturity and new ways of working into the Riksbank’s long-term strategy.
The goal is to attract top engineering talent. Once dominated by economists and lawyers, the Riksbank now draws strong interest from IT professionals motivated by real world impact.
A balanced technology model combines selective cloud use with full control over critical services, enabling innovation without sacrificing stability.
Data, AI and DevSecOps are core to operations. Cross-functional teams bring together engineers, analysts and economists. Roles overlap by design - economists have begun to code, developers will increasingly engage with regulatory work, and AI assistants support translation, compilation and quality assurance. This frees experts to focus on deeper analysis, decision making and other proactive, value creating work.
Security is embedded from the start. Agile teams work closely with security architects, legal experts and operations technicians across the full lifecycle. DevSecOps, supply-chain security, penetration testing and regulatory compliance are continuously strengthened. Sensitive data remains on controlled systems, supported by modern open-source-based platforms.
The culture is far from the formal image many might expect of a central bank. It is open, warm and collaborative, built on trust and shared learning. Colleagues support each other, share knowledge and present their work directly to senior leadership, including the Governor. Self leadership and continuous improvement are encouraged, with ongoing learning at the core. For technologists seeking depth, agility and meaningful societal impact, the Riksbank offers lasting relevance.
Aligning Leadership with Shared Purpose
Leadership starts with alignment. When leadership at the board and higher executive level is committed to the same direction, it creates stability and trust across the organization.
Strong leadership also depends on the management team. Real progress happens when teams work together toward shared outcomes and technology becomes a means for quality, speed and reliability.
Equally important is grounding leadership in the core business. For me, leadership means building alignment from the top, strength in the middle and partnership across the organization, so everyone moves forward in the same direction.
