Lifting an urban-marketing trick perfected by smaller companies, the carmaker is lending its new model, the Focus SE, to stylish hipsters--club kids, disc jockeys, the earring-in-the-navel set.

FORBES: Stunts for Blue Chips

Mr Riese reckons that the bank's initial shift to a decentralised model was helped by the fact that lending growth was very tightly regulated in Sweden at that time.

ECONOMIST: More Swedish lessons for the banking industry

His model is based on factors such as changes in bank lending, the economic growth rate and the size of the speculative-grade market (a glut of issuance tends to be an indicator of loose lending practices).

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

On the face, its business model is similar to Grameen's, operating in Bangladesh, which focuses on lending to poor women.

FORBES: On Civil Society