A failure in the payment system or the securities settlement system would bring large segments of the economy to a halt. System owners are therefore required to meet high standards of risk management in order to minimise risk in these systems. Norges Bank has evaluated the Norwegian systems against international principles and the results show that the systems are in line with most of the principles.

One of the challenges in the financial infrastructure is related to the extensive outsourcing of IT system operations by system owners. Even though system operators must comply with strict risk management requirements, system owners must not lose sight of their responsibility for system operations.

According to Norges Bank's estimates, society could save close to NOK 25 billion annually by switching from paper-based to electronic invoicing, reducing invoicing costs by more than half.

"The e-invoicing requirement for suppliers to government agencies will probably also boost the use of e-invoicing in the private sector", says Nicolaisen.

• Financial Infrastructure Report 2014 (In Norwegian, an English version will be published at a later time)
• Developments in retail payment services 2013 (Norges Bank Papers 1/2014)