The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has sent the Ministry of Finance a draft consultation note proposing legislative and regulatory changes to the rules on qualified holdings in financial undertakings. The package is aimed at aligning Norwegian law more closely with European Economic Area requirements following the EFTA Court's ruling in case E-24/24 and in light of an open infringement case by the EFTA Surveillance Authority. A central proposal is to repeal the rule requiring three quarters of the share capital in banks and insurance undertakings to be subscribed through a capital increase without pre-emptive rights for existing shareholders or others. The draft also proposes to narrow the ownership information required at authorization so authorities would need the identity of direct and indirect qualified owners, or the 20 largest owners if there are no qualified owners, rather than all owners. It would align the fitness assessment of qualified owners at authorization with the same exhaustive criteria used for subsequent acquisitions under the Financial Undertakings Act, and clarify that acquisitions may be refused only on reasonable grounds based on those criteria or where notification or information requirements are not met. For enforcement, the authority proposes replacing the current framework with a new provision allowing voting rights to be suspended and holdings to be ordered sold or force-sold, rather than requiring immediate mandatory forced sale, while applying the same ongoing standards to qualified owners whether they were approved at authorization or through a later acquisition. The Ministry of Finance is expected to send the matter for consultation. The part of the ministry's mandate concerning credit and other business relationships between financial undertakings and qualified owners will be addressed in a separate consultation note later.

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