Some finance matters are a part of my Finance site. There is a separate section for Sweden - link.
List of banks in Sweden (Wikipedia).
Skandiabanken is the largest internet-based bank in Scandinavia.
GE Money offers a fee-free MasterCard credit card (link).
Skandia offers Visa credit card without membership fee. There are fees and provisions for withdrawing cash overseas.
Their Visa Electron debit card, on the other hand, has a membership fee but does not charge for cash withdrawals overseas and locally.
All cards have currency surcharge.
Compare their cards (link).
Opening a bank account in Sweden
Skandia offers a fee-free all-in-one account that is fee-free and pays interest on the amount. Check the fees.
While there is lots of sites that do currency conversion (trade) and international funds transfer, the differences between the rates they apply and the fees they charge can be significant.
One of the best sites I found so far is TransferMate.
For a quick online conversion there is, as usual, an awesome XE's Universal Currency Converter.
According to Your Living City (YLC), internet banking allows for fee-free transfers. Need to check whether this includes international transfers. Transfers within Euro zone should cost the same as within any member country, therefore being free in this case.
Skandia Bank charges no fees for international fund transfer.
Social security article on Wikipedia (link).
The article states that the pension is paid by the government. It is collected through the 18.5% pension tax on income.
Social Insurance Agency (link)
Wikipedia article (link). More on taxation from Encyclopedia of Nations (link).
Tax rates from Nordisk (link).