Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway finds debt purchasing collection firms overcharged debtors and omitted required payment notice information

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has published findings from a thematic review of firms licensed to purchase and collect overdue monetary claims on their own behalf. The review found that two firms sent payment demands without all information required by law, while three firms had demanded excessive amounts from debtors. In two cases this involved excessive late-payment interest, and in one case the firm charged too much standard compensation for recovery costs. The authority concluded that the failures breached good debt collection practice and said the affected firms' day-to-day management must strengthen internal controls. The review covered all seven debt purchasing collection firms and examined how they buy overdue claims, what information they provide to debtors, what documentation they hold on claim origin and history, and whether recovery practices complied with applicable standards. At the end of 2025, these firms had 881 claims under collection representing NOK 264 million, including original principal, late-payment interest and collection and legal costs. For two firms, missing information in payment demands included items such as the creditor's identity, what the claim concerned, the late-payment interest rate used and the consumer debtor's right to request board review. The authority also found miscalculations of late-payment interest at two firms and said that, because the affected debtors had not paid, those cases must be restarted with a new debt collection warning if the firms want to claim statutory recovery-cost compensation. In the third overcharging case, a system error led one firm to charge NOK 470 instead of NOK 460 in standard compensation between July 1, 2025 and Jan. 15, 2026. That firm refunded NOK 10 to debtors who had paid and sent corrected demand letters with a new payment deadline to others.