Circular on Control Committee Meeting Minutes Authorization and Legal Member Approval

Circular/Guidance

This circular is no longer valid.

The circular applies to:

Savings banks no. 2 Commercial banks no. 2 Life insurance companies no. 2 Property insurance companies no. 2 Financing companies no. 2 Credit institutions no. 2

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) has decided to change the practice regarding the authorization of the control committee's meeting minutes and the approval of the legal member of the control committee.

Authorization of the control committee's meeting minutes:

According to Section 13, eighth paragraph of the "Act of 24 May 1961 No. 1 on Savings Banks" and Section 13, third paragraph of the "Act of 24 May 1961 No. 2 on Commercial Banks," the control committee in savings and commercial banks must keep a minutes record authorized by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority regarding its deliberations. Such authorization has previously occurred by the control committees sending their minutes to the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority for endorsement of approval. The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority has decided to change this practice so that the minutes are considered authorized without being sent to the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority, provided the minutes meet certain conditions.

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority assumes that the minutes are authorized if they are bound and formatted in such a way that necessary notoriety regarding the deliberations is secured. This means that it should not be possible to remove pages, and the minutes must be paginated and withstand ordinary use.

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority will, however, accept minutes from banks that wish to continue sending in the minutes for authorization.

Approval of the legal member of the control committee:

It follows from various legislation concerning financial institutions that the control committee must have a member who satisfies "the requirements set for judges under the Act of 13 August 1915 No. 5 on the Judiciary, Section 54, second paragraph." The election of this member must be approved by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority. Institutions have, upon the replacement of the legally qualified member, submitted applications attached with information confirming that the person in question has taken a legal degree and requested the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority's approval.

Based on Section 13, first paragraph of the "Act on Savings Banks," Section 13, first paragraph of the "Act on Commercial Banks," Section 5-5, first paragraph of the "Act on Insurance Business," and Section 3-11, first paragraph of the "Act on Financing Business," the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority has decided that the election of a legally qualified member to the control committee may be considered approved if the institutions ensure that the person in question meets the requirement in Section 54, second paragraph of the "Act on the Judiciary." A notification of the election and confirmation that this person has taken a legal degree must be sent to the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority.

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority will, however, accept applications for approval of the legally qualified member from institutions that wish to follow the previous practice of submitting a specific application.

By authority

Ole-Jørgen Karlsen

Camilla Forgaard Andreassen