Financial institutions (discontinued), Q1 2004

Lending to the public (municipalities, households and non-financial corporations) was NOK 1 731 billion by the end of the 1^{s t} quarter of 2004, of which the banks had a share of 70 per cent. The shares of lending to the public for the financial institutions are relatively unchanged. Finance and mortgage companies have the second largest share by 17 per cent.

Steady interest margin

The interest rate margin is defined as the difference between the weighted average interest rates on NOK loans to the public and weighted average interest rates on deposits from the public. Norges Bank reports that the banks interest rate margin was 2.94 per cent at the end of the 1^{s t} quarter of 2004.

This is 0.09 percentage points higher than a year ago.

The interest rates on loans went down by 3.38 percentage points from the 1^{s t} quarter of 2003, to 4.36 per cent, while the deposit interest rate fell by 3.47 percentage points to 1.42 per cent.

Increased total assets

Total assets for financial institutions went up by 15.8 per cent to NOK 4 619 billion, compared with the corresponding quarter last year. Norges Bank had the largest increase in total assets by 30.3 per cent to NOK 1 591 billion. This includes investments by the Government Petroleum Fund. Total assets for commercial and savings banks went up by 8.3 per cent to NOK 1 773 billion.