Norges Bank (, , ) is the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

of Norway. It is responsible for managing the

Government Pension Fund of Norway The Government Pension Fund of Norway () is the sovereign wealth fund collective owned by the government of Norway. It consists of two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds: the Government Pension Fund Global (or Norges Bank Investment Mana ...

, which is the world's largest

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, Bond (finance), bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

, as well as the bank's own

foreign exchange reserves Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold and silver held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, ...

History

The history of the central bank of Norway can be traced back to 1816, when, two years after the separation from Denmark and the union with Sweden, Norges Bank was established by an Act of the Storting (the Norwegian parliament) on 14 June. The bank then decided that the monetary unit was to be the speciedaler (rixdollar), divided into 120 skillings or five ort ("rigsort") of 24 skillings each. The Money Act of 17 April 1875 discontinued the terms daler and skilling, and it was decided that the monetary unit should be a krone, divided into 100 øre. This was done to prepare for Norway's entry, on 16 October that year, into the

Scandinavian Monetary Union __NOTOC__ The Scandinavian Monetary Union was a monetary union formed by Denmark and Sweden on 5 May 1873, with Norway joining in 1875. It established a common currency unit, the krone/krona, based on the gold standard. It was one of the few tan ...

. This union had been established between Denmark and Sweden in 1873 on the recommendation of a joint commission (in which Norway participated) to establish a common Scandinavian coin based on gold. It meant that the other countries' coins were to be legal tender on the same basis as those struck at home. The union functioned until 1914; thereafter it lacked all practical significance, but was not formally abolished until 1972. On 1 January 1897 the seat of Norges Bank was moved to Kristiania (Oslo) from

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

, and in 1906 a new headquarters building on Bankplassen was opened - for 80 employees including the workers in the banknote printing plant. During the Second World War, the seat of Norges Bank was temporarily moved to London in 1940, in that the Norwegian government-in-exile established a new board. The bank's gold reserves were evacuated via Åndalsnes, Molde and Tromsø to London, and from there to New York and Ottawa. This gold and the bank's other currency reserves were under the control of the London board. At the same time, the bank continued its operations in Norway under the direction of the Nazis until the war was over and the London board stepped down. A commission of inquiry after the war concluded that the bank's Oslo management had taken a firm and correct attitude towards the Nazi authorities. In 1962, the Mint Supervisory Authority and the Royal Mint were transferred from the state to Norges Bank. In March 2025, Norges Bank Investment Management announced that it has acquired a 49% stake in two offshore wind farms under construction in Denmark and Germany from RWE for 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion). The purchase includes stakes in RWE's Nordseecluster and Thor wind projects, expected to have a combined capacity of 2.64 gigawatts, enough to power over 2.6 million households. The deal reduces RWE’s net cash investments by about 4 billion euros, while RWE will continue to handle construction and operation.

Norges Bank Investment Management

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) is a separate branch of Norges Bank and is responsible for the management of the Government Pension Fund - Global. NBIM also manages Norges Bank's

. NBIM invests the fund's assets and the foreign exchange reserves in international

equities Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion t ...

and

fixed income Fixed income refers to any type of investment under which the borrower or issuer is obliged to make payments of a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. For example, the borrower may have to pay interest at a fixed rate once a year and repay the pr ...

instruments,

money market The money market is a component of the economy that provides short-term funds. The money market deals in short-term loans, generally for a period of a year or less. As short-term securities became a commodity, the money market became a compo ...

instruments and derivatives.

List of Central Bank Governors

The following is a list of past and present governors of the Norges Bank. The Act of 1892 gave the board a permanent chairman. In 1985 the term Executive Board was introduced, and the chairman was entitled Governor of the Central Bank, the following people have served as chairmen and governors. *

Karl Gether Bomhoff Karl Gether Bomhoff (6 August 1842 –23 September 1925) was a Norwegian pharmacist, politician and governor of the Central Bank of Norway. Biography He was born in Larvik. He graduated as pharmacist in 1863 in Drammen and Trondheim, follow ...

(1893–1920) *

Nicolai Rygg Nicolai Theodorius Nilssen Rygg (29 February 1872 – 27 September 1957) was a Norwegian economist and Governor of the Central Bank of Norway. Biography He was born in Stavanger as a son of shoemaker Ole Nilssen Rygg (1842–1908) and Ane Se ...

(1920–1946) * Arnold C. Ræstad (head of the London branch 1940–1945) *

Gunnar Jahn Gunnar Jahn (10 January 1883 – 31 January 1971) was a Norwegian jurist, economist, statistician, politician for the Liberal Party and resistance member. He held several important positions, such as Norwegian Minister of Finance and Customs fro ...

(1946–1954) *

Erik Brofoss Erik Brofoss (21 June 1908 – 7 May 1979) was a Norwegian economist and politician for the Labour Party. Brofoss was born in Kongsberg. In his younger days he was an athlete who competed national level in the 100 metres. He represented Kongsbe ...

(1954–1970) *

Knut Getz Wold Knut Getz Wold (3 August 1915 – 9 October 1987) was a Norwegian economist and civil servant, who served as the governor of the Central Bank of Norway from 1970 to 1985. He was born in Verdal Municipality in Nordre Trondheim county, as a son ...

(1970–1985) *

Hermod Skånland Hermod Skånland (15 June 1925 – 16 April 2011) was a Norway, Norwegian economist and civil servant, who served as the Norges Bank#List of Central Bank Governors, Governor of the Norges Bank, Central Bank of Norway from 1985 to 1993. Biography ...

(1985–1993) *

Torstein Moland Torstein Moland (born 4 November 1945) is a Norwegian economist. From 1986 to 1989, during the second cabinet Brundtland, Moland was a state secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister. He was then CEO of Norske Skog from 1990 to 1993, an ...

(1994–1995) *

Kjell Storvik Kjell Storvik (born 20 November 1930) is a Norwegian economist and former Governor of the Central Bank of Norway. He is a cand.oecon. by education. From 1977 to 1981 he was the vice president of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association. He was t ...

(1996–1998) *

Svein Gjedrem Svein Ingvar Gjedrem (born 25 January 1950 in Finnøy) is a Norwegian economist and former Governor of the Central Bank of Norway. He graduated in political economy from the University of Oslo in 1975, worked as a consultant in the Central Bank ...

(1999–2010) * Øystein Olsen (2011–2022) *

Ida Wolden Bache Ida Wolden Bache (born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian economist who has served as the governor of Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank, since 2022. She is the first woman to hold the position. Education Born in Bærum, Bache graduated from V ...

(2022–''present'')

London branch

* Arnold C. Ræstad (head of the London branch 1940–1945)

References

External links

Official site: Norges Bank

Official site: Norges Bank
{{authority control Government agencies of Norway

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...