STOCKHOLM, June 3 (Reuters) - Sweden is prepared to take stakes in the Nordic country's banks if they fail to manage their mounting loan losses, Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg said on Swedish television on Wednesday.

"If the banks approach us with large credit losses after making a lot of money on lending, their shareholders will have to pay the consequences," Borg said in an interview with Swedish public service broadcaster SVT.

"We will be very clear with banks which are not solvent and cannot live up to what the law stipulates, that they can count on (government) funding to be in the form of state ownership."

Borg told Reuters earlier on Wednesday the banks' exposure to the Baltic region had put Sweden's economy at considerable risk, but declined to comment on the likelyhood of devaluation of the Latvian currency.

Fear of a devaluation of the Latvian currency continued to jitter markets on Wednesday, and worries of the banks' exposure to the Baltic region were reignited after a failed auction of Latvian treasury bills, sending shares in Swedbank (SWEDa.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) and SEB (SEBa.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) lower.

(Reporting by Victoria Klesty)