Petroleum Fund (Petroleumsfond)

Offshore oil (Chapter 8) has made Norway the richest of the Nordic countries. Starting in 1990, the country has shrewdly put 80% of its oil revenues into a Petroleum Fund that is invested overseas, so the benefits will last for many years to come. As this book goes to press, the market value of the Petroleum Fund is one trillion kroner, equivalent to nearly 250,000 kroner for every resident. Contact Norges Bank for information on the Fund.

POS terminals (Betalingsterminaler)

Point-of-sale (POS) terminals are commonplace; per million population, there are half again as many POS terminals in Norway as the average for the EU countries. Magnetic-stripe card readers, in which you swipe your card through a slot in the terminal, are the most common, though smart card readers are on the upswing. The railways and the airlines use varieties of POS terminals for ticketless travel (Chapter 46).

Saving (Sparing)

Bank deposits are safe, so saving in a bank remains one of the more common investments. Banks compete to attract savers by offering various plans for bank deposits (bankinnskudd). Provided other aspects, such as loyalty to a bank where you have other accounts or the convenient location of a nearby bank, are not more important, you should compare the interest schemes offered by competing banks. The schemes usually offer increasing interest for greater deposits, in stages. However, the offers vary from bank to bank. Consider two banks, A and B, both of which offer 3% interest on savings account balances up to NOK 50,000, but differ in their offerings for greater balances. Bank A offers 6% on amounts above NOK 50,000, whilst bank B offers 6% when the overall balance exceeds NOK 50,000. The results of interests they offer are shown below:

In all cases, you should assess interest in terms of the benefit you receive after tax and after inflation.

Securities Depository (Verdipapirsentralen, VPS)

A distinctive feature of the Norwegian financial infrastructure is that a single organisation, the Norwegian Central Securities Depository (VPS ASA), performs functions that in other markets are performed by different organisations, including registration, processing corporate actions, and clearing and settlement. The registration of financial instruments is completely dematerialised in Norway. Consequently, VPS maintains an owners’ register for issuers and administers payments and dividends. The individual investor keeps title on securities accounts with VPS through one or more account operators, who manage accounts and act as intermediaries between VPS and investors and issuers. For further details, contact VPS, Biskop Grunnerusgt 14A, PO Box 4, 0051 Oslo, Tel: 22635300, Fax: 22635200, www.vps.no, vps@vps.no.

State Agency for Recovery of Fines, Damages and Costs (Statens innkrevingssentral)

If you fail to pay a bill or fine from a State ministry, department or agency, you will receive a collection notice from the centralised governmental collector, The State Agency for Recovery of Fines, Damages and Costs, Terminalveien 2, PO Box 455, 8601 Mo i Rana, Tel: 75149000, Fax: 75155502, www.sismo.no, firmapost@sismo.no.

The stock exchange (Børs)

The stock exchange in Norway is Oslo Børs, which operates a regulated market for trading in various types of securities. The market is known as Oslo Børs both in Norway and elsewhere, though it is often called the “Oslo stock exchange”. Buyers and sellers of securities meet and trade through the market on the simple principles of matching supply and demand. The product areas offered by Oslo Børs are: shares and primary capital certificates, bonds and other fixed-income instruments, derivatives and warrants.

Oslo Børs is in the NOREX alliance of the stock exchanges that includes the exchanges in Copenhagen, Denmark, Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden, Reykjavik, Iceland, Riga, Latvia and Tallinn, Estonia. NOREX operates the SAXESS electronic trading system, which in turn supports the exchanges’ common system for share trading and promotes uniform trading and practices. For further information on common trading in the seven countries, on NOREX or on trading in Norway, contact Oslo Børs, Tollbugt 2, PO Box 460 Sentrum, 0105 Oslo, Tel: 22341700, Fax: 22341925, www.oslobors.no or visit the NOREX website at www.norex.com.

SWIFT

SWIFT is the abbreviation for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, the financial industry-owned cooperative that supplies secure, standardised messaging services and software to 7,650 financial institutions in 200 countries. SWIFT was formed in 1973 by 239 banks from 15 countries, including four banks from Norway – Den norske Creditbank (now DnB NOR) and Bergen Bank (now merged to Den norske Bank), Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse (now Nordea) and Forretningsbanken (now Fokus Bank). SWIFT’s members worldwide now include banks, brokers, dealers, investment managers as well as market infrastructures in payments, treasury and trade.

In everyday private banking, you will encounter SWIFT only when sending or receiving cross-border “wire transfer”, which actually means transfer via SWIFT. In making a transfer, you will need to know the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) of the payee’s bank, which is also called the “SWIFT address”, because it was originated by SWIFT, which is the global registrar for BICs. For further details, contact SWIFT, Avenue Adèle 1, B-1310 La Hulpe, Belgium, www.swift.com.

Telebanking (Telebank)

Telebanking allows you to carry out bank transactions, at any time of the day or night, from any fixed or mobile telephone. The telebanking services offered by the commercial and savings banks vary, but are of two sorts. The customer account service (Kontofon) provides figures, such as account balance and recent transactions, and allows you to transfer funds between different accounts in the same bank. Some banks also offer printouts of Kontofon transactions via telefax. The interbank giro transfer service (TeleGiro) is part of the giro system and permits you to pay a giro by keying in the details of it. Kontofon and TeleGiro both provide protection by requiring you to use your personal identity number (PIN) to gain access to services, and both operate using a menu system with voice prompts in Norwegian. Contact your bank branch for further details on its telebanking services and charges.

Transfer of funds (Overføring av pengei)

You can transfer funds between accounts in the same bank at the counter of any of its branches, or remotely by online banking or telebanking. You can transfer funds between accounts in different banks at the counter of either bank, by using giro or via online banking. You can transfer funds to payees or accounts in other countries at the counter of your bank by filling out a Betaling til utland (“payment to abroad”) form. If the agreement with your bank for online banking includes foreign transfers, you may key in a transfer in the same way that you key in an ordinary domestic payment. All international transfers are reported to the Exchange Register (Valutaregister) maintained by Norwegian Customs and Excise (Chapter 43).

Traveller’s cheques (Reisesjekker)

Traveller’s cheques are no longer used as much as they were in the days before payment cards became commonplace. Traveller’s cheques are so seldom used that Norges Bank no longer lists statistics for them in its annual report of foreign exchange transfers into and out of the country. Services for the Eurocheque, once a favoured means of payment in Europe, were disbanded in 1999. So receiving a Eurocheque in Norway is unfortunate, because you cannot cash it and consequently should return it to the sender. Despite the overall trend, banks and travel bureaux recommend traveller’s cheques for travel to areas where payment by card is not yet commonplace. The two leading traveller’s cheques are American Express and Thomas Cook/Master Card. American Express cheques are available in US dollars, Euros, British Pounds and Swiss Francs, and Thomas Cook/Master Card cheques are available in US Dollars, Euros, British Pounds and Japanese Yen. Traveller’s cheques in Norwegian Kroner are also available. Most larger banks in cities keep stocks of traveller’s cheques and expedite orders at their counters, whilst smaller banks may not keep stocks, but can always fill orders within two to three bank days.

Walk-in kiosk (Ekspressbank)

A walk-in kiosk is a dedicated small area of a bank branch with terminals for electronic banking. The walk-in area, usually no more than 15 to 20 square metres, is either separate from the other branch facilities or closed off from them after hours. So a walk-in kiosk is often said to offer “after-hours banking”, even though the kiosks are open during bank opening hours as well as after hours. The typical walk-in kiosk includes one or more cashpoints, an automated bank note depository (innskudd), a coin counter (myntteller), a coin roll automat (myntrullautomat) and a telephone teller (kontofon). The kiosks are fitted with security cameras, and some have card-secured doors. Most kiosks are open from 7 am to 9 pm daily. A kiosk at a larger bank branch will also have a street-facing cashpoint that is accessible 24 hours a day.

Wills and inheritance (Testament og arv)

Inheritance is monitored and regulated according to the Inheritance Act (Arveloven), which sets forth the requirements for wills and inheritance, and covers situations and personal relationships which may be involved. In summary, the principal provisions are the following.

A will (testament) states the way that a person wishes that his/her estate (formue) is to be distributed to heirs (arvinger) after death. For a will to be valid, it must be in writing (skriftlig), and the person writing it, known as a testator (arvelater) must be at least 18 years old and must have the will signed by at least two witnesses (vitner), both of whom must be present at the same time. There are four classes of heirs: relatives, spouses, designated beneficiaries and the State.

Relatives are divided into three classes that designate the order of inheritance (arvefølge), which means that heirs in the first class have priority on inheritance. If there are no heirs in the first class, inheritance goes to heirs in the second class, and so on to the third class. In the first class are dependent heirs (livsarvinger) including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The second class, which includes parents and, if the parents are dead, their children (the brothers and sisters of the testator). The third class includes grandparents and their children and their children’s dependants, that is, aunts, uncles and cousins.

If a testator has dependent heirs (livsarvinger), they are entitled to a mandatory part of the inheritance (pliktdelsarv) which the will cannot take from them. This means, for instance, that a parent cannot write a will which deprives a child of inheritance. The mandatory part is equivalent to two-thirds of the total estate, and is limited to NOK one million from each parent for each child and NOK 200,000 for each grandchild.

A spouse also is entitled to a mandatory part of an inheritance. However, a separated (separert) or divorced (skilt) spouse has no such right. For instance, if a couple have joint property (felleseie) and have made no statement of separate property (sœreie), when one of them dies, the survivor is entitled to half the joint estate or an amount equal to four times the basic amount, whichever is greater, plus at least one-quarter of the remainder (half or less of the joint estate). The dependent heirs, such as the couple’s children, are then entitled to two-thirds of one-half of the joint estate of their parents. The surviving parent may execute the estate or postpone execution of it (uskiftet bo).

Designated beneficiaries may inherit amounts up to limits set by the provisions for dependent heirs and spouses.

The State inherits an estate if a deceased (avdødde) person has no relatives entitled to inheritance and has made no will.

An heir may relinquish the right to an inheritance (avkall på arv) by giving notice (avslag på arv) before the will is executed. For instance, parents with children may elect to relinquish an inheritance and transfer it to their children, in order to minimise inheritance tax (arveavgiften).

The execution of a will (skifteoppgjør) has two principal steps. First, the probate court (skifterett) in a city or town must be notified of the death (dødsfall) of the testator. In rural districts, notice can be given to the sheriff (lensmann). Then the heirs can elect the form of execution, which may be either private (privat skifte) or public (offentlig skifte). In practice, legal heirs who agree completely on the execution of a will usually prefer the private alternative, as public execution takes longer and entails a fee for the services of a public administrator of the estate (bobestyrer). However, if a will is challenged on any grounds, such as because it has not been properly executed or a rightful heir has not been included, the execution must be public, by the probate court.

If need be, you may consult a lawyer expert in inheritance law (arverett) to draw up your will or assist in the execution of an estate.