The financial system has various components that partly overlap and are partly separate:
- The financial markets is a collective designation for all markets for financial assets, and the participants are financial institutions, households, enterprises, the public sector and the foreign sector.
- Financial institutions channel funds from savers to borrowers, redistribute risk and execute payments.
- The financial infrastructure ensures that all payments, investments and trades in the organised markets are carried out.
Structure of the Norwegian financial system
At 31 December 2010
| |
Number | Total assets (per cent of GDP) | Tier 1 capital ratio (1) (per cent) |
| Banks (2) |
133 |
123 |
11.8
|
|
Mortgage companies
|
31 |
55 |
10.9 |
| Finance companies |
50 |
4 |
13.5
|
| State lending institutions |
3 |
10
|
|
| Life insurance companies (2) |
12 |
34
|
12.1
|
| Non-life insurance companies (2) |
44 |
5
|
39.2
|
Footnotes
1) Tier 1 capital as a percentage of risk-weighted total assets.
2) Excluding foreign-owned branches in Norway.
Sources: Statistics Norway and Norges Bank