Securum was a Swedish state company founded in 1992 during the financial crisis in Sweden 1990–1994 for the purpose of taking on and unwinding bad debt from the partly state-owned Nordbanken bank.
It followed a proposal made to the Swedish authorities by McKinsey & Co and based on better practices from the US banking crises of the 1980s (e.g., Savings & Loan, Resolution Trust Company and Mellon Bank).
Many of the debts were owed by real-estate companies and it became a goal for Securum to stabilize the property market.
Securum's design was quite particular and followed proven success factors for a "bad bank": speed and independence to isolate the problem exposures, while simultaneously protecting capital and liquidity of the surviving "good bank" and its operations.
Five flotations were executed: Nobelpharma – today Nobel Biocare – Servisair and three property companies: Castellum AB, Norrporten as well as Pandox.