Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway finds client-account mandate breaches and fee overcharging at Alektum AS

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (Finanstilsynet) has published an on-site inspection report for Alektum AS, identifying issues with governance and labelling of client accounts, the handling of claims originating abroad, and the charging of a writing fee above the permitted level. During the September 2024 inspection, Finanstilsynet found that powers of attorney over client accounts had been granted to individuals employed by Alektum’s Swedish parent company, which does not hold a Norwegian debt collection licence. It also noted that five of six client money accounts were incorrectly labelled as ordinary current accounts rather than client accounts, although the bank confirmed the account setup was otherwise correct and subsequently corrected the labels and issued a non-set-off declaration. Sample testing identified multiple cases where a writing fee of NOK 639 was charged instead of the maximum NOK 638.50 (half the 2024 court fee), linked to a rate update; the incident was not reported to Finanstilsynet as required under the ICT regulations, and Finanstilsynet set out expectations for remediation including refunds or reallocation of out-of-court collection costs. Separately, payment demands for certain claims received for collection from abroad included foreign reminder fees, resulting in debtors being charged more than permitted under Norwegian rules; Alektum identified affected cases and refunded paid collection costs. Finanstilsynet expects the firm to complete corrective actions, including repayment where required, and asked Alektum to provide a copy of the report letter to its auditor.