Employees in uproar at DNB

The chief executive of Norway’s biggest and highly profitable bank, DNB, has found himself in a major clash with thousands of employees over a controversial reorganization that’s led to job cuts, demotions and widespread insecurity. Nearly 200 middle managers have already lost their positions and now the labour organization representing thousands of other DNB staff [...]

Norges Bank won’t follow Europeans

The European Central Bank cut its already-low key interest rate last week but Norway’s own central bank didn’t follow along. The board of Norges Bank decided on Wednesday to keep its key lending rate unchanged at 1.5 percent. “Overall developments in the Norwegian economy have been broadly in line with expectations,” Jan F Qvigstad, deputy [...]

DNB to cover customer losses

Rune Bjerke, chief executive of Norway’s biggest bank DNB, has had to deal with angry investment customers, borrowers and government officials in recent weeks. Now he’s decided to at least compensate some of the bank customers who lost money on misleading investment products, after the bank itself lost a landmark case in the country’s highest [...]

Anger rises over bank rate hikes

Several Norwegian banks, including the country’s major lenders, have been raising interest rates on home mortgages at a time when interest rates otherwise are at record lows. The banks are blaming the rate hikes on pending legislation, and that’s angering both borrowers and politicians alike. In an example of a letter sent to some loan [...]

Central bank keeps interest rate low

Norges Bank announced on Thursday that its key lending rate, so-called “styringsrenten,” will remain unchanged at 1.5 percent. The bank board decided that unless the Norwegian economy is suddenly subjected to any major new shocks, the interest rate level should lie between 1 and 2 percent at least until the bank’s next report is published in [...]

High costs won’t halt good times

The average hourly wage costs of an industrial worker in Norway are now more than eight times that of a worker in Poland, according to a recent government report, and that’s added to fears that the country’s economic good times will soon stop rolling. Analysts at state statistics bureau SSB, however, say they’re only “a [...]

Household debt hits record levels

Norwegian homeowners’ debt levels have skyrocketed over the last eight years, with some now paying down mortgages that are three times larger than average loan amounts in 2004, according to fresh data. On average, mortgage amounts are up 55 percent in just five years, and consumer debt has risen as well, but Norwegians are still [...]

Banks face potential rate scandal

Norwegian banks are facing claims by several international financial institutions that they’ve been manipulating their interbank lending rates. Norway’s central bank, Norges Bank, is worried and has asked financial regulators to investigate. “If this isn’t market manipulation, I don’t know what is,” a large, international bank wrote in a letter to Norges Bank and obtained [...]

Good times likely to roll into 2013

Norway’s strong, oil-fueled economy looks set to stay that way in 2013, according to the country’s biggest bank, DNB. Its analysts and economists predict low interest rates, another rise in consumption and more economic growth throughout next year. The growth rate may be slower, at 2.4 percent instead of this year’s 3.5 percent, but that [...]

Borrowing costs set to stay low

The cost of borrowing money in Norway is expected to stay low at least through early next year, following the central bank board’s decision on Wednesday to keep the country’s key lending rate unchanged at 1.5 percent.  Øystein Olsen, governor of Norges Bank, said the bank’s so-called “key policy rate” was “being kept at a [...]

‘No interest rate increase this year’

Norway’s central bank, Norges Bank, not only refrained from raising interest rates on Wednesday but its deputy governor said its key lending rate is likely to remain stable for the rest of the year. It currently stands at an historically low level of 1.5 percent. Jan F Qvigstad told reporters that the bank’s executive board, [...]

Euro sinks to new low against krone

More bad economic news from Spain sent the value of the Euro to its lowest levels against the Norwegian krone for nearly 10 years on Monday. Industrial exporters in Norway are once again viewing their own strong Norwegian currency as a threat. One euro amounted to just NOK 7.36 on Monday, down from NOK 7.37 [...]

Borrowers avoid interest rate hike

Norway’s central bank board has ignored some economists’ calls for a hike in interest rates. Just a day after even Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg worried that Norwegians have too much debt, the bank nonetheless kept interest rates low on Wednesday, at their last meeting before the summer holidays set in. It was no big surprise, [...]

Central bank left lending rate low

The executive board of Norway’s central bank left the country’s key lending rate unchanged at 1.5 percent, after their latest meeting on Thursday. Officials now don’t expect any changes in the rate for the rest of the year. Jan Fredrik Qvigstad, deputy chief of the board, said there were signs that industrial activity was picking [...]

Central bank cuts interest rates again

Three weeks ago, the head of Norway’s central bank told a group of foreign correspondents in Oslo that while the bank’s key interest rate was very low, “it’s not zero.” That proved to be strong hint that the bank’s executive board could still cut rates and they did just that, in a move that surprised [...]

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