Asset Management | The Norwegian regulator proposes to introduce fees for cross border services

Non-Norwegians marketing investment funds or providing financial services into Norway on a cross-border basis have so far not been subject to any administrative fees by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (the FSAN). This is now likely to change as the FSAN has proposed to introduce fees for a number of actors. If adopted, the new charges will be introduced as soon as practically possible. In the following, we will provide an overview of the proposal and its practical implications.

Cross border investment fund marketing
The FSAN has proposed the following fees for marketing in Norway:

	Registration fee (NOK)	Annual fee (NOK)
UCITS (per notification)	5 000	7 000
EEA AIF (EEA AIFM)	5 000	7 000
Non-EEA AIF (and feeder to such) by EEA AIFM (Article 36)	10 000	7 000
Non-EEA AIF by non-EEA AIFM (Article 42)	15 000	7 000
AIFs to non-professional investors	20 000	7 000
AIFs subject to the Investment Fund Act (open ended AIFs)	15 000	5 000

It should be noted that the FSAN proposes that they can determine the charges from year to year, however so that a minimum of NOK 5 000 and a maximum of NOK 30 000 shall apply for the registration fees and a maximum of NOK 10 000 shall apply for the annual fees. Any additional increase will require an amendment to the underlying regulation.

Other activities

Tied insurance intermediaries of non-Norwegian insurance companies:

Tied insurance intermediaries (“insurance agents”) on non-Norwegian insurance companies (that do not have any branch establishment in Norway) shall be registered with the FSAN. It is proposed to introduce a registration fee of NOK 5 000, and an annual fee of NOK 10 000.

Tied agents/appointed representatives of non-Norwegian investment firms:

Tied agents/appointed representatives of non-Norwegian investment firms shall be registered with the FSAN. The FSAN proposes to introduce a registration fee of NOK 5 000, and an annual fee of NOK 10 000.

The FSAN evaluated introducing administrative fees for cross border management by foreign fund managers into Norway, but concluded that this would not be in accordance with the EEA Agreement.

Timing

The proposal will now be subject to a public hearing process, with a deadline to submit comments on 10 March 2020. FSAN has stated that the aim is to introduce the new administrative charges as soon as practically possible. Keeping in mind that the new administrative charges require amendments to the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Act and appurtenant regulations, we assume that the proposal will become effective as of 1 July 2020 at the earliest.

BAHR comments

All costs involved in the running of the FSAN are covered by the supervised entities in Norway, divided between them based on the work involved in the supervision of each category of entities.

Up until now, marketing of non-Norwegian investment funds has not been subject to any fees, and effectively the Norwegian supervised entities have born the costs involved between them. Not surprisingly, the Norwegian market participants have requested introduction of administrative fees for foreign fund managers marketing into Norway for some time.

There is a risk that such administrative fees may deter non-Norwegian managers from seeking authorisation or passporting their investment funds for marketing into Norway, resulting in fewer choices for Norwegian investors. The fact that the proposed administrative charges are kept at a reasonable level and it will be possible to de-register funds from marketing into Norway should go some way to mitigate this risk.

We expect that the proposal will be adopted as it currently stands, and that fees will be introduced in the second half of 2020.