In a time when economic crises relieving one another, it is especially interesting to study how companies choose to finance their operations. Since there is a lack of studies that include banks, and their capital structures, with the rest of the finance market, it is uncertain whether the theories of capital structure are applicable. Therefore, this essay aims to study whether there is any correlation between the two variables debt-equity ratio and return on equity (ROE) for Swedish corporations on the finance market.

In accordance with the theorems that the professors Modigliani and Miller filed, in 1958 and 1961, which describes a clear link between debts, increase corporate value through the tax shield and indirectly increased yields. Although these theorems are the foundation of the modern research they focus on perfect markets. Therefore, this paper has also chosen to place great emphasis on theories such as Trade-off and Pecking-order. Two theories developed by the professor Stewart C. Myers, in the year 1984, and through them he tried to explain the context of markets lined with imperfections.

To delineate this essay it will only consider those finance companies which are listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange Large Capital list, representing 14 companies. And the collected data is limited to a total of four years, from the year of 2006 to 2009. The analysis is performed using the statistical program called SPSS, where a linear regression is used to explain the relationship.The conclusion of this essay is that the Modigliani-Miller theorem, that increased leverage gives more return to the investors, not can be justified. All companies have over time shifted its indebtedness, but this has not resulted in a significant change with the development of the companies’ return on equity.  Furthermore, it is conceivable that a linear regression is not the best tool to use because of the results and when the Trade-off theory indicates a non-linear relationship. Moreover, in continued research it would probably give the best, and most reliable, result not try to analyze the whole finance market because of the variations between segments.