One of the first things you may notice about Norway’s financial services is that they are user-friendly, convenient and highly automated. Norway has one of the world’s lowest percentages of cash transactions and on a per-capita basis, is the world leader in credit and debit card use as well as in the prevalence of point-of-sale (POS) terminals in shops. Most non-cash transactions now are electronic; the use of paper cheques is so insignificant that it is reported as zero in statistics. Banks still provide most banking services, and insurance companies still deal mostly in insurance, but more than eight financial services in 10 are provided by groups that offer both banking and insurance.

Advisory Council on Bankruptcy (Konkursrådet)

The Norwegian Advisory Council on Bankruptcy consists of representatives from the courts, lawyers, accountants, public administration and the public prosecutor. It works to update and harmonise bankruptcy and insolvency practices throughout the country. It is an advisory body only and does not deal with individual cases. Its secretariat is at the Ministry of Justice, PO Box 8005 Dep, 0030 Oslo, Tel: 22245441, Fax: 22242722, www.konkursradet.no, konkursraadet@jd.dep.no.

Automated cash handling (Kontanthåndteringssystem)

Supermarkets and other high-volume retailers increasingly fit automated cash handling systems at checkouts. The typical system consists of a banknote changer handled by the checkout operator and a coin exchanger where the customer feeds in coins and receives change. Together with the automated reading of bar codes, the systems promote security and reduce the chance of human error. The two most common systems are CashGuard and SafePay, both made in Sweden.

Bank account (Bankkonto)

Banks offer both current accounts and savings accounts. There are several varieties of current accounts that usually are packaged with other bank services and are aimed at specific user groups, including wage-earners (lønnskonto), young people (ungdomskonto), students (studentkonto) and retired persons (honnørkonto). Interest is paid on current accounts, usually at the lowest rate offered by a bank. Other services, such as an overdraft facility (kassakreditt), may be connected to a current account. Most current account holders will have one or more payment cards and will pay their bills by giro. Cheques have almost disappeared for non-cash payments, so sjekkonto the equivalent of “checking account”, the American expression for a current account, is no longer used. A savings account (sparekonto) is intended for long-term placement and accordingly usually pays a higher rate of interest than a current account in the same bank, but has a maximum number of withdrawals per year to attain that interest rate. For larger balances, most banks offer high interest accounts (høyrentekonto) and investment accounts (plasseringskonto). Account balance statements (saldi) are usually posted or made available online at the end of each month for a current account and less frequently for a savings account. There are no tax-free accounts, but most banks have accounts offering tax advantage. For instance, the young people’s saving for housing purchase (Bolig sparing for ungdom – BSU) account permits up to NOK 100,000 to be saved by persons up to the age of 34 and allows NOK 15,000 of a year’s deposits to be entered on a tax return to achieve a tax reduction of NOK 3,000.

Bank Identifier Code (BIC)

In all international transfers, banks round the world identify themselves using the Bank Identifier Code (BIC), also known as the “SWIFT code”, because it was originated by SWIFT, the organisation that issues and keeps a register of the codes.

The BIC is an eight-character sequence of letters and sometimes numbers that identifies the bank head office, or 11 characters if the bank is a branch of the head office. The format for the full 11 characters is:

BANKCCLLOOO

where BANK is a four-character code for the bank, CC is the two-character ISO country code, LL is a locator code within the country and OOO is the bank’s designation of a branch office. For instance, the BIC for the head office of Den norske Bank is:

DNBANOKKXXX

Banking charges (Gebyr på banktjenester)

A bank will give you a list of its charges when you open an account and thereafter will notify you of any changes. Charges vary slightly from bank to bank, so in considering a bank, you should evaluate its charges in light of your banking habits. In addition to monthly account charges, most people incur four types of banking charges:

• Cash withdrawal from a cashpoint: no charge within opening hours and an average of NOK 5 charge out-of-hours at the bank’s own cashpoints; NOK 5–7 from other banks’ cashpoints; NOK 30 average plus 1.75%–5% of amount taken out at cashpoints abroad.
• Payment card debiting at a point of sale: average NOK 2 per transaction.
• Paper giro processed by teller at a bank branch: NOK 20–35 per giro.
• Online banking payments: NOK 2–4 per payment.

Bankruptcy and insolvency (Konkurs og insolvens)

If you cannot pay your bills and debts and have no means to pay them, you are insolvent. If your insolvency persists over a longer period of time, you can declare or be declared bankrupt. Despite popular myths about it, bankruptcy must not be taken lightly. A bankruptcy application is always advertised in national and local newspapers. Your bank, insurance company, creditors, landlord and the like will always be informed of an application, and your bank and payment card accounts will be closed. Nonetheless, bankruptcies are increasingly frequent. In 1926, the first full year reported, 1,317 applications were filed for bankruptcy. The number of applications per year now is more than 5,000. Most applications are made by businesses or their unsecured creditors, but four in 10 applications are made by private individuals. The Norwegian Advisory Council on Bankruptcy is the best single source of extensive information and advice on bankruptcy and insolvency.

Banks (Bank)

As elsewhere in Europe, banking in Norway is divided between the public and private sectors, and all bank and financial activities are regulated by the Financial Supervisory Authority (Kredittilsynet).

In the public banking sector there is one central bank, Norges Bank, which issues currency and sets interest rates, and several lending institutions that are concerned with governmental and business financing. However, two of the institutions offer private services. The Loan Fund (Lånekassern) offers grants and loans to finance education at vocational schools, colleges and universities, and the housing bank (Husbanken) offers mortgages to finance housing built to prescribed standards.

The private banking sector consists of commercial banks and savings banks, both of which offer general banking services to the public. The names “commercial” and “savings” are historical. In years gone by, a commercial bank (forretningsbank) made loans to commerce, as for financing trade, and was itself a commercial business, whilst a savings bank (sparebank) accepted only the deposits of small savers. The difference in the form of organisation remains: today commercial banks are private companies owned by their shareholders, whilst savings banks are independent foundations permitted by law to use the word “savings” (spare) in their names. Otherwise, the services offered are similar. Both commercial banks and savings banks now are all-in-one banks, offering a range of financial services in addition to traditional banking business.

The commercial bank category consists of nearly 30 commercial institutions, which include both Norwegian banks and branches of foreign banks, the Postal Bank (Postbanken) and other specialised financial institutions. The two largest Norwegian commercial banks are DNB NOR and Nordea Bank, each of which has branches (filial) throughout the country and offices in London, New York, Singapore and other financial centres. The Postal Bank offers its services at post offices throughout the country. The foreign banks conducting business in Norway include other Scandinavian banks as well as international banks. Almost all banks and companies in the commercial category are members of The Norwegian Financial Services Association (Finansnœringens Hovedorganisasjon), Hansteensgt 2, PO Box 2473 Solli, 0202 Oslo, Tel: 23284200, Fax: 23284201, www.fnh.no, fnh@fnh.no.

There are 127 savings banks in the country. The largest, and fifth largest of all Norwegian banks, is Sparebanken-1 SR Bank, with branches throughout the country. The other savings banks vary from smaller banks with one or two branches in a city or town to larger regional banks with up to 100 branches. The savings banks are members of The Norwegian Savings Banks Association (Sparebankforeningen), Universitetsgt 8, 0164 Oslo, Tel: 22110075, Fax: 22362533, www.sparebankforeningen.no, firmapost@sparebankforeningen.no.

For general information on banking, contact the associations at the numbers listed above. For specific information on banks and their services, contact offices or branches at numbers listed under Bank – og finanstjenester in the Yellow Pages or under the name of the bank in the Pink Pages.

Banks’ Central Clearing House (Bankenes Betalingssentral)

The Banks’ Central Clearing House (BBS) is an information technology based organisation owned by the commercial banks and the savings banks. BBS provides a variety of interbank services and operates the Norwegian Interbank Clearing System (NICS) that consists of the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system for large interbank transfers and the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system for mass retail processing as of giro payments. For further information, contact BBS, Haavard Martinsens vei 54, Rommen, 0045 Oslo, Tel: 22898989, www.bbs.no.

Basic amount (Grunnbeløpet)

The central reference point in calculations of National Insurance (Chapter 21) payments, benefits and pensions as well as in taxation is called the “basic amount” (Grunnbeøpet), abbreviated “G” in computations. G is set by Parliament (Chapter 20) once a year, usually after the annual wage settlements in June, and is retroactively effective on 1 May of that year. G has risen through the years in step with the rising cost of living: in 1967, G was set at NOK 5,400, and on 1 May 2005 it was set at NOK 60,699. One G is the minimum annual National Insurance basic pension. There may be supplements to or reductions from the basic pension, such as a 25% reduction for each person of a couple when both receive a pension or the same reduction in pension for one person of a couple when the other earns 2G or more gross annual income before taxes.

Budget, household (Budsjett, husholdning)

The most recent statistics (Chapter 42) show that the average Norwegian household consists of 2.3 persons who together spend NOK 304,767 (2003) a year, of which more than a quarter is for housing. Otherwise, expenditures reflect the increasing affluence of the country: people spend 13 times as much on restaurants and hotels as they do on health care, and nearly nine times as much on post and telecommunications as they do on education. The average percentages for the categories of consumption (forbruk) are:

Cashpoint (Minibank)

There now are more than 2,000 cashpoints, also called automated-teller machines (ATMs) in the country. Some are located outdoors at bank branches and usually are identified by conspicuous signs reading Minibank and the name of the bank, whilst some are located indoors at banks, airports, railway stations and shopping malls as well as in self-service walk-in kiosks at bank branches. The operating banks determine the cards acceptable at their cashpoints. Visa and Mastercard are the most commonly acceptable international cards at cashpoints, which feature choice of language – Norwegian or English for international card transactions. Some cashpoints at gateway airports and city banks with international trade also offer foreign exchange services in several languages. All Norwegian bank cashpoints are coordinated so an account or cash card (minibankkort) issued by any bank may be used in any cashpoint throughout the country to withdraw cash against debiting an account, although the banking charges are higher for withdrawal from a bank other than the one holding your account. The keypad is the international standard with Norwegian names on the three command keys: Klar (Enter), Feil (Clear) and Avbryt (Cancel). The order of interactive on-screen text varies from bank to bank, but almost all include eleven basic commands:

Counterfeiting (Forfalskning)

Counterfeiting is a small though growing criminal activity, as copying machines, scanners and colour printers are increasingly commonplace. Consequently, banknotes are printed with numerous security features, including watermarks, security threads, fluorescent patterns, intaglio printing, holographic foil strips, rosettes, mother-of-pearl strips, register marks and ultraviolet fluorescence. Contact Norges Bank for a complete overview of the security features on the five banknotes in circulation or visit its website at www.norges-bank.no, click on “English” in the taskbar, then on “Notes and Coins” at the left and “Counterfeit Detections” in the drop-down menu, and finally, select a banknote from the list at the right.

Currency (Valuta)

The unit of currency is the Crown (Krone), commonly abbreviated kr, but also NKr, the mnemonic code long used in commerce, and the more recent international-standard three-letter NOK used by banks. The abbreviations for the currencies of the Nordic countries, except for Finland, which uses the Euro, along with those of the UK and the USA shown in Table 1 are:

The krone is divided into 100 øre. Until 1974, coins were minted in denominations down to 1 øre. But inflation and the rising cost of minting diminished the value of the øre coins, which were successively withdrawn. Today, only the 50 øre coin remains, and all sums settled in cash, such as at shop checkouts, are rounded off to the nearest 50 øre.

Five coins are in circulation: 50 øre (bronze 18.5 mm diameter), 1 kr. (copper-nickel, 21 mm with 3 mm centre hole), 5 kr. (copper-nickel, 26 mm with 4 mm centre hole), 10 kr. (copper-nickel, 24 mm) and 20 kr. (copper-zinc-nickel, 27.5 mm). The 10 kr. and 20 kr. coins bear a portrait of H.M. King Harald V; the 50 øre and 1 kr. coins bear his monogram and the 5 kr. coin features the St Olav Order.

The five bank notes in circulation are of different sizes that increase uniformly 5 mm in width and 8 mm in length between successive denominations, to ease identification by the blind and visually impaired: 50 kr. (128 x 60 mm, green, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen portrait), 100 kr. (136 x 65 mm, red, Kirsten Flagstad portrait), 200 kr. (144 x 70 mm, greyish-blue, Kristian Birkeland portrait), 500 kr. (152 x 75 mm, reddish brown, Sigrid Undset portrait) and 1,000 kr. (160 x 80 mm, pastel colours, Edvard Munch portrait). All bank notes have security features to prevent counterfeiting.

Currency restrictions (Valutaregulering)

You may bring in or take out up to a total of NOK 25,000 per person per trip in bank notes and coins, in Norwegian currency, foreign currency or both Norwegian and foreign currencies. This limit applies regardless of whether you are a resident of Norway or of another country. If you carry more than NOK 25,000 you must fill out Customs and Excise form RD-0026B, available at post offices and border crossings and online at www.signform.com, and present it to customs at your point of arrival or departure. The same rules apply to import and export shipments of bank notes and coins via postal or courier services. There is no limit on the denominations of Norwegian or foreign bank notes that you may carry, although you may find NOK 1,000 bank notes difficult to exchange abroad.

Debt collection (Inkasso)

If you fail to pay a bill by its due date, you may be contacted by a debt collection agency, a lawyer, a bank, a factoring service, a municipality, or the State Agency for Recovery of Fines, Damages and Costs. Outstanding debts are collected in four stages:

• 1Notification (varsel): Most bills and loan agreements include a notice of penalty interest (forsinkelsesrenten) for late payment, such as “After due date, penalty interest is charged at the rate of 1% per month or part thereof” (Etter forfall beregnes renter med 1% pr. påbegynte måned).
• 2Reminder and notification of imminent debt collection (purring/innkassovarsel): Once a payment is past due, a creditor may send a reminder and charge for sending it, as well as charge for the accumulated penalty interest, and give notice of debt collection proceedings to be initiated within 14 days.
• 3Debt collection (inkasso): After 14 days from the date of a reminder, an unpaid debt may be sent to a debt collection organisation, which will initiate out-of-court collection (utenrettrslige inndriving) by first sending a request for payment (betalingsoppfordring) within 14 days or more and then registering the unpaid debt in the debt register (betalingsanmerkningsregister). As the debtor, you are responsible for the costs involved.
• 4Legal collection (rettslig inndriving): After the due date of the request for payment, the debt collection organisation may initiate legal collection by the Conciliation Board (Forliksrådet) for unsecured debt, such as ordinary bills, or by a bailiff (namsmannen) who is empowered to attach or provisionally attach property (utleggsforretning), to initiate eviction (utkastelse) and to hold forced sales by auction (tvangsauksjon).

If you receive a reminder that is in error or if you owe less than the amount stated, contact the creditor and the debt collection organisation. If there is reasonable doubt that you do not owe the sum stated, you are not responsible for debt collection costs. Likewise, if a creditor or a debt collection organisation fails to follow good collection practice (inkassoskikk), such as by misstating the facts or your rights or threatening you or setting due dates in national holiday weeks, you are not liable for collection costs. If you or your family have difficulty paying a legitimate debt (betalingsproblemer) and have received a request for payment, contact the debt collection organisation to negotiate a compromise on payment and halt listing in the debt register. By law, you cannot be deprived of belongings essential in your everyday life. But as you are responsible for the expenses of debt collection as well as for accrued interest, postponement often worsens a debt situation. The Consumer Council (Chapter 26) publishes and regularly updates a fact sheet (faktablad) on debt collection. For a copy of it, or for advice should you believe you are unjustly treated in a collection matter, contact the nearest office of the council; see Forbrukerrådet in the Pink Pages.

Due date (Forfallsdag)

Bills (regning) and invoices (faktura) include a due date, which is the last date on which the amount stated may be paid. The date is stated in several ways. An invoice may have a line labelled forfallsdag or just forfall, whilst betalingsfrist is the label of the field in the upper right-hand corner of the standard giro form. Late payment (for sen betaling) incurs interest on an overdue payment (morarente) as stated on an invoice. A typical statement is: Etter forfall beregnes renter med 1,00% pr påbegynte måned (“After the due date, interest is charged at the rate of 1.00% for each month begun”). If you pay a bill using a paper-based giro, allow two to three business days for it to clear and be paid. If you pay via online banking, you can specify that a bill be paid on its due date.

Euro

Norway is not a member of the EU, but its exchange rates and other international financial transactions are affected by the Euro, which is the official currency of 12 of the member countries of the European Union (EU). For further information on the Euro, contact your country’s central bank or visit the European Central Bank website at www.euro.ecb.int.

Exchange (Valuta)

Norges Bank regulates the exchange of Norwegian kroner to and from other currencies. You may freely exchange up to 25,000 Norwegian kroner (NOK) or its equivalent at almost all banks and larger post offices, which either buy (kjøp) foreign currency and give you Norwegian kroner, or sell (salg) foreign currency and accept payment in Norwegian kroner. Upon arriving in Norway from abroad, you must declare any amount above NOK 25,000 but may freely exchange up to NOK 40,000 provided that you show identification, such as a passport. Upon departing from the country, you may freely take up to NOK 25,000. Banks and other organisations performing exchange are required to report all exchange transactions of amounts over NOK 5,000 to the Exchange Register (Valutaregister) maintained by Norwegian Customs and Excise (Chapter 43). The exchange rates (valutakurs) for the most commonly traded currencies are listed in the financial sections (Økonomi) of daily newspapers, usually for the previous business day, under the heading Valuta (currency), and include the amount of Norwegian kroner needed to buy other currencies. Exchange rates for currencies not listed in newspapers are available at banks, which usually have daily lists of the buying (kjøp) and selling (salg) rates for all currencies traded.

Factoring services (Faktoring tjenesteri

Factoring services send out invoices, manage accounts receivable and perform debt collection for other business enterprises. The leading factoring services are operated by financial service companies. The largest is Elcon Finance, which is owned by Santander Consumer Finance of Spain and has offices in Denmark and Sweden as well as throughout Norway, (Strandveien 18, 1325 Lysaker, Tel: 22969000, Fax: 22967552, www.elcon.no). In most cases, your only contact with a factoring services company will be its name and account number as the payee on an invoice for goods or services delivered by another company.

Family expenditure (Husholdnings utgiftei)

Two organisations serve families as consumers. The National Institute for Consumer Research (Chapter 20) is the centre for research, analysis and testing in fields related to personal consumption. The Consumer Council (Chapter 26) safeguards the interests of consumers. Both are concerned with family expenditure. The Institute for Consumer Research regularly compiles a standard budget for after-tax consumption expenditure (standardbudsjett for forbruksutgifter). For instance, in 2004, the typical standard budget for a family comprising of an adult couple with an eleven-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy spent NOK 222,830 a year in daily expenses, exclusive of housing, tobacco and alcohol, higher-level education, health services, expensive hobbies, holidays, celebrations and gifts. The Consumer Council publishes a consumer reports magazine (Forbruker Rapporten) as well as numerous booklets and fact sheets on consumer topics. The large, school notebook-size (A4) family account book (regnskaps bok) has 35 pages of forms that help a family keep monthly and annual budgets and records of expenses, and includes summaries of the major laws affecting consumer rights. It is stocked by bookshops and may be downloaded free from www.forbrukerportalen.no.