Financial institutions (discontinued), Q1 2005

Lending to the public (municipalities, households and non-financial corporations) came to NOK 1 868 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2005, of which the banks had a proportion of 71 per cent. The proportions of lending to the public are relatively unchanged. Finance and mortgage companies have the second largest proportion by 18 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 2.68 per cent at the end of the first quarter of 2005.

This is a decline of 0.24 percentage points compared with last year.

The interest rates on loans went down by 0.37 percentage points from the first quarter of 2004, to 3.97 per cent, while the deposit interest rate decreased by 0.13 percentage points to 1.29 per cent.

Increased total assets

Total assets for financial institutions went up by 6.3 per cent to NOK 3 567 billion, compared with the corresponding quarter last year. Life insurance companies had the largest increase in total assets by 10.9 per cent to NOK 553 billion. Total assets for commercial and savings banks went up by 7 per cent to NOK 1 899 billion.