The bubble was made worse by the fact that at the same time as the deregulation, there was also significant cuts in the control agencies, which led to a lack of public oversight.
So there are some similarities.
Most of the banking crisis in Norway was handled by the remains of the corporatist system thought, which is probably why the final cost for tax payers were so much lower in Norway compared to Sweden and especially Finland. That is, the bank guarantee funds took care of most of the collapsing banks.
But if you are interested the linked article is an easy and informative read.
The article has a whole chapter on the reasons for the boom. Deregulation is singled out as the main culprit. Neither bank managers or the public were used to a free market for financial services, since the whole financial sector had been thoroughly controlled through a corporatist system since the second world war.
So true...I remember well that 'everybody' went 'mad'...bankers included. There were stories of people leaving banks with plastic bags full of cash...euforia set in! Ordinary people could borrow money all of a sudden, and they did...
