Stockholm - Swedish senior citizens have reacted angrily after a newspaper disclosed that several banks have upper age limits for loans or credit cards.

Online and telephone niche bank Ikano bank is one of the banks that has an upper age limit for loans, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper said Thursday in a second article in a series on banking.

Ironically, the bank is controlled by 82-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, founder of furniture retail giant Ikea and listed as one of the world's richest men.

At his age, Kamprad would not be approved for a loan, the head of Ikano bank Sweden, Stefan Nyrinder, told Dagens Nyheter.

The bank offers loans of up to 350,000 kronor (55,000 dollars) without security - but only for citizens aged 18 to 70.

"Since the loans run for up to 12 years there is need for a limit on how long you are expected to live. Seventy is an adequate limit," Nyrinder said.

Dagens Nyheter also noted that Citibank of the US does not issue credit cards to people above age 75. The group's head of Swedish customer services said it was not possible to determine how long people will live beyond that age.

Discrimination Ombudsman Katri Linna and PRO, an organization that groups some 400,000 senior citizens in Sweden, questioned the policies.

Linna said there were "many stereotyped risk assessments" that could be regarded as discriminatory, and hoped Sweden would follow Canada's example in abolishing such procedures. (dpa)