Overview
Finanstilsynet (NO) is Norway's financial supervisory authority, covering banking and finance, insurance, the securities market, financial reporting by listed companies, auditing, external accounting services, estate agency and debt collection, together with ICT supervision and anti-money-laundering work. Its budget is approved by the Storting as part of the national budget, and its expenses are recovered in full from supervised institutions through an annual supervisory levy — NOK 616.5 million (≈ €56.1 million) in 2025. It licenses 5,719 entities under EU financial-services frameworks — among them 91 banks, 99 investment firms, 57 insurers, 2,512 insurance intermediaries and 2,346 loan intermediaries — and separately supervises the audit, accounting and estate agency professions. A new Financial Supervision Act took effect on 1 April 2025, changing the role of its board, creating an appeals tribunal and transferring core market-authority tasks from Oslo Børs. In the same year it took on Norway's crypto-asset mandate, with the Crypto-Assets Act in force from 1 July 2025. Everything below is Finanstilsynet's own data, from its Annual Report 2025.
Leadership
4Per Mathis KongsrudDirector Generalsince 2023
Finn ArnesenChair of the Board
Anders Sanderlien HoleDirector, Banking and Insurance Supervision
Marte Voie OplandDirector, Market Supervision
Full board
Organisation (FY2025)
Staff360Employees at 31 December 2025, including short-term engagements and hourly-paid staff. 354 at end-2024
Staff — alternative measures358 permanent · 327 agreed FTE · 311 performed FTEAgreed FTE counts employment contracts without deducting absence; performed FTE deducts absence and adds overtime. 323 agreed and 310 performed in 2024
Staff turnover6.8%Down from 8.4% in 2024. 67 hired against 46 vacancies advertised
Total allocationNOK 661.9m (~€60.2m)Basis: total allocation across posts 01–99 as reported in the annual accounts, not outturn. NOK 673.5m in 2024. NOK→EUR at market mid-rate (not ECB)
Operating expenditureNOK 553.3m (~€50.4m)Post 01 outturn, up almost 8% on 2024, driven partly by the new Hamar office. Salary costs NOK 410.9m — 70.1% of operating payments
Supervisory levyNOK 616.5m (~€56.1m)Charged to supervised entities in May 2025 to recover Finanstilsynet's and the appeals tribunal's costs beyond case-handling fees. Allocated across groups on registered man-weeks
Case-handling fees collectedNOK 24.3m (~€2.2m)Up from NOK 18.2m in 2024, mainly because Finanstilsynet took over the takeover-authority role from Oslo Børs on 1 April 2025
Supervised entities (end-2025)
Entities licensed under covered frameworks5,719Derived from Table 10. Composition: 2,512 insurance intermediaries (IDD) · 2,346 loan intermediaries (MCD/CCD) · 244 AIF and UCITS managers (62 AIF, 182 registered AIF, 27 UCITS — 271 including managers counted once) · 180 credit institutions and branches (91 banks, 27 mortgage companies, 25 finance companies, 37 inward bank branches) · 116 investment firms and market infrastructure (99 investment firms, 17 inward branches, 1 CSD, 3 market operators, 5 benchmark administrators) · 93 insurers and inward insurer branches (11 life, 46 non-life, 4 marine mutuals, 32 branches) · 74 pension funds · 58 savings bank and finance foundations · 42 payment, e-money and account information providers · 12 virtual-currency providers · 11 holding companies · 7 credit purchase firms
Held out — professions outside covered frameworks3,3912,390 accounting firms · 493 estate agency firms · 444 audit firms · 61 general debt-collection firms · 3 debt-information undertakings — all real parts of Norway's mandate, none under a covered framework
Held out — outward branches2112 branches abroad of Norwegian banks + 9 of Norwegian insurers. Removed to avoid double-counting entities already captured through the Norwegian parent
Held out — natural persons18,10212,627 authorised accountants · 4,903 statutory auditors · 572 lawyers with estate agency in their own practice
Levy population — published headline (for provenance only)17,082The authority's own aggregate: entities covered by the 2025 levy allocation, including 80 foreign branches and 941 cross-border. Mixes legal and natural persons and in- and out-of-scope professions. Do NOT use in comparisons
Reconciliation5,719 + 3,391 + 21 + 18,102 = 27,233Equals the full Table 10 population — the derivation is complete and checkable
Selected categories (31 Dec 2025)91 banks · 27 mortgage cos · 25 finance cos · 19 PIs · 10 EMIs · 12 VASPs · 99 investment firms · 62 AIF managers · 27 UCITS mgmt cos · 46 non-life + 11 life insurers · 2,512 insurance intermediaries · 2,346 loan intermediaries · 4,903 statutory auditors · 12,627 authorised accountants · 493 estate agency firmsFrom Table 10. Norwegian branches of EEA-headquartered banks are supervised primarily by the home authority
Listed companies under financial reporting control255
Enforcement 2025
Violation penalties and disgorgementNOK 118.1m (~€10.7m)Calendar year 2025, paid to the Treasury and not part of the levy base. NOK 41.1m in 2024. Includes a NOK 10m penalty on a listed issuer for unlawful disclosure of inside information during analyst calls; seven cases referred to the police
Crypto / MiCA (EEA)
FY2025Crypto-Assets Act in force1 July 2025MiCA incorporated into the EEA Agreement by EEA Joint Committee Decision No 41/2025 of 20 February 2025. Level 2 acts implemented on a rolling basis by amendments to the Crypto-Assets Regulation §2
MiCA transitional periodExtended to 30 June 2026Originally 30 December 2025 under §19(2). Extended in December 2025 to the maximum permitted by MiCA Article 143(3)
ESMA guidelines appliedKnowledge and competence guidelines from 13 March 2026Joint ESA guidelines on crypto-asset classification templates have applied in Norway since 9 January 2025
Notable 2025
EEA route to MiCANorway is an EEA state, not an EU member: MiCA reached Norwegian law through the EEA Agreement rather than directly, and Norwegian crypto-asset firms came under the regime six months after their EU counterparts.
Full MiCA transition extension usedFinanstilsynet used the full extension available under MiCA Article 143(3), moving Norway's transitional deadline from 30 December 2025 to 30 June 2026 to avoid unnecessary interruption for existing providers.
New Financial Supervision ActReplaced the 1956 statute on 1 April 2025 — making the Director General the head of the authority, narrowing the board's role to cases where the Ministry of Finance's power of instruction is limited, and creating a separate appeals tribunal for decisions the Ministry previously handled.
Takeover authority from Oslo BørsOn the same date Finanstilsynet took over supervision of continuous disclosure obligations, delayed disclosure of inside information, share buy-backs and price stabilisation from Oslo Børs, and became Norway's takeover authority — handling 67 cases and approving ten takeover bids in nine months.
Hamar officeOpened on 1 September 2025 to strengthen work against economic crime, with nine staff at year-end and a target of 20 during 2026.
Direct levy modelCosts are allocated across supervised groups on the basis of registered man-weeks, so who pays tracks where supervisory effort actually goes.
Passporting under Norwegian CASP licenceNorwegian-authorised CASPs can passport into other EEA states by notifying Finanstilsynet, and the same route brings EEA-authorised providers into Norway.
Key legislation
4Financial Supervision Act 2025 (in force 1 April 2025)Founding statute — Director General as head of the authority; new appeals tribunal
Financial Undertakings Act (Finansforetaksloven)Credit institutions, insurers, pension funds
Payment Systems Act / Financial Services ActPSD2 / EMD framework
Crypto-Assets Act (in force 1 July 2025)MiCA implementation via EEA Joint Committee Decision No 41/2025
Registers, portals and publications