§ 3-38. Information about financial intermediation and advice
Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська
In brief
- The customer (kunde) must be told who the intermediary firm represents and whether it is independent.
- The breadth of the advice and which service providers (tjenesteytere) are used must be disclosed.
- The customer must be told how the remuneration is set and paid.
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
§ 3-38. Information about financial intermediation (finansoppdrag)
- whether the intermediary firm acts as an independent intermediary
- whether the intermediary firm, in carrying out the financial intermediation, represents the customer or the service provider
- whether the financial intermediation concerns advice on the basis of an assessment of a majority of the financial services (finansielle tjenester) available in the market for the product category the intermediation concerns, or on the basis of an assessment of a smaller, but sufficient, number of financial services, and what this means for the customer
- the name of the service provider if the intermediary firm is contractually obliged to intermediate financial services on behalf of one or more service providers
- if the financial intermediation is not covered by letter b or c, the name of the service provider or service providers that the intermediary firm may use or actually uses in carrying out the financial intermediation
- if the information has not been given expressly under § 3-28, how remuneration and other financial benefits that the intermediary firm and the employee concerned receive in connection with the financial intermediation are determined, including whether the remuneration is commission-based, the size of such remuneration and the method for calculating it, and whether the customer is to pay the remuneration directly or whether it is included in the price of the financial service intermediated through the financial intermediation.
What does this mean?
This section applies to financial intermediation, that is, when an intermediary firm intermediates or gives advice about financial services from others. The customer must be told whether the firm is an independent intermediary, and whom it represents when carrying out the intermediation: the customer or the service provider. Where advice is given, the customer must be told whether the advice is based on a broad assessment of the offers in the market or on a smaller selection, and what that means for the customer.
The question of money takes up the most space. The customer must be told how the firm and the employee are paid for the intermediation: whether the remuneration is commission-based (payment that depends on what is sold), how large it is and how it is calculated, and whether the customer pays it directly or whether it is part of the price of the service. If the firm is contractually bound to intermediate for particular service providers, the customer must be given their names, and otherwise the names of those the firm may use or actually uses.
The rules apply to financial intermediation as mentioned in § 3-22 second paragraph, which specifies that they apply regardless of the form of sale, but not to intermediation already covered by the Securities Trading Act (verdipapirhandelloven), the Securities Funds Act (verdipapirfondloven) or the Crowdfunding Act (folkefinansieringsloven). Information about the remuneration does not have to be given again if it has already been given under § 3-28 on costs. Under § 3-28, the customer must otherwise be told the total amount and the individual items of what is to be paid to the service provider.
Example: A customer asks an intermediary firm for help choosing a financial service. Before the agreement on the intermediation is entered into, the firm must state whether it acts independently, whom it represents, how broadly it has compared offers in the market and how it is itself paid. This section is one of the information rules under § 3-22, together with § 3-37 on lease financing (leiefinansiering) and § 3-39 on offers made during a telephone call.