Under the current system for managing banks’ reserves, interest is paid at the key policy rate on a certain portion of the reserves – a quota – for the banks that are Norges Bank’s monetary policy counterparties. Deposits in excess of the quota are remunerated at a lower rate – the reserve rate. Norges Bank will normally assess the total quota and its distribution among banks twice a year.

The following applies as from 1 April 2025:

• Norges Bank will seek to maintain reserves in the banking system at an average NOK 35 billion with a symmetrical interval of ±5 billion around this level.
• The sum of banks’ quotas, the total quota, is set at NOK 45 billion.

The monetary policy counterparties are divided into three groups where all banks in the same group are assigned the same quota, with the exception of settlement banks which are assigned higher quotas. The banks are divided into groups as follows (Table 1):

Table 1. Division of banks into groups (as of December 2024) 

The quotas that apply as from 1 April 2025 are set on the basis of banks’ total assets as of 31 December 2024. The quotas are distributed as follows (Table 2).

Table 2. Banks’ quotas to be applied as from 1 April 2025. In thousands of NOK

TA: Total assets

The settlement banks DNB, SpareBank 1 SMN, SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge and Danske Bank are assigned quotas as follows (Table 3).

Table 3. Quotas for settlement banks, DNB, SpareBank 1 SMN, SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge and Danske Bank*. In thousands of NOK

*Settlement banks are assigned a supplementary quota determined by the size of the settlement bank in relation to the size of the B-banks or equivalent banks for which it executes settlements (as measured by total assets). The additional quota is added to the original quota before it is rounded, while the total quota is rounded. The table presents rounded figures. If the estimated quota for the settlement bank is initially NOK K billion, its total assets NOK X billion and the sum of total assets of the B-banks is NOK Y billion, the settlement bank will be assigned a supplementary quota equal to K x (Y/X), but with an upper limit equal to the sum of the quotas for the B-banks for which it executes settlements. The settlement bank’s total quota will normally be equal to K+K x (Y/X).

For a further description of the system for the management of bank reserves, see The management of bank reserves: The system in Norway.

For a further discussion of the background of the system, see Background for the system for managing bank reserves in Norway.