Mutual funds

Mutual fund: Mutual funds are collective investment undertakings through which an indefinite circle of investors pool funds for investment mostly in securities such as listed shares, equity certificates, bonds and short-term debt securities.

Securities: A security is a negotiable financial instrument. Negotiability refers to the fact that its legal ownership is readily capable of being transferred from one owner to another by delivery or endorsement. While any financial instrument can potentially be traded, a security is designed to be traded on an organised exchange or “over the counter”, although evidence of actual trading is not required. The over-the-counter marketinvolves parties negotiating directly with one another, rather than on a public exchange.

Securities include debt securities and equity securities, securities such as listed and unlisted shares, equity certificates, bonds and short-term debt securities.

Balance sheet: The balance sheet shows assets, liabilities and equity at the end of the financial year.

Profit and loss account: Shows income and expenses over the course of the calendar year.

Type of mutual funds:

The mutual funds are grouped into the following six types of mutual funds, according to how the mutual funds share capital is invested: equity funds, bond funds, money market funds, hybrid funds, other bond funds and other funds.

Equity fund is a type of mutual fund, where 80 percent of shareholders’ capital is invested in equity securities, mainly listed shares and equity certificates.

Bond fund is a mutual fund invested in debt instruments or bond funds. It is also called debt fund. Share capital in bond funds are invested in long-term debt instruments.

Money market fund is a mutual fund or more exactly a debt fund that invests in short-term debt securities such as treasury bills and commercial papers that are called money market instruments that have maturity of less than a year.

Hybrid fund is a mutual fund that invests both in equities and bonds. The percentage of equities or debt instruments in the portfolio of the hybrid funds varies from one hybrid fund to another. This percentage may also vary over time.

Other bond fund is a debt fund that doesn’t fall into the category of bond fund or money market fund.

Other fund can be described as a mutual fund that cannot be classified as any of the above mentioned funds. Hedge funds among others are classified under this category.

Valuation

The market value of the mutual funds' shares is based on the net share value of the individual fund at the end of each period.

The market value of the securities owned by the mutual funds is based on available market rates. For listed securities, this will mainly be the market price from the Oslo Stock Exchange and foreign stock exchanges. For the non-listed, VPS-registered securities, estimated market rates derived from observed transaction rates or annual tax assessment rates are used.

Financial instruments and fixed assets: liabilities, claims and other assets in the unit trust's balance sheets are divided into main groups with a view to providing uniform groups.

Debtor and creditor sector: In compiling the statistics, the actors are grouped into sectors, primarily by socio-economic function, such as general government, financial enterprises, non-financial enterprises, households and the rest of the world.

Income and expense types: including, inter alia, interest and share dividends, are based on national accounts rules.

The sector and industry classification for Norwegian enterprises (issuers/owners) is entirely based on the Register of Business Enterprises in Brønnøysund that is based on the international requirements stated in SNA2008 (System of National Accounts) /ESA2010 (European System of Accounts) and NACE Rev.2 (European Classification of Economic Activities) from the 4th quarter of 2006.