§ 4-25. When the bank has credited or debited the wrong account or amount
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 bank must notify the customer (kunde) without undue delay when it discovers an incorrect credit or debit.
- The bank can itself correct an incorrect credit by debiting the account by the end of the third business day (virkedag).
- This right does not apply where the credit was made on an order from a third party, but it always applies where a criminal offence is involved.
- General rules on recovery apply alongside.
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
§ 4-25. Notification and correction of incorrect crediting or debiting of an account
What does this mean?
This section governs what the bank (the payment service provider) must do, and may do, when it has itself made an error on an account. The first paragraph requires the bank to notify the customer without undue delay when it discovers that an account has been incorrectly credited or incorrectly debited. If the bank has already corrected the error, and the customer cannot realistically have gained a wrong picture of how much he has at his disposal, it is enough to include the notification in the ordinary account information. The account information comes in writing at least every month and shows, among other things, the balance and the individual transactions.
The second paragraph gives the bank a right to act on its own. If it has by mistake credited the wrong account or too high an amount, it can correct this by debiting the account. The right lasts until the end of the third business day. It also applies when the error was made to an account in another bank, provided that the bank has access to make corrections there.
The third and fourth paragraphs set limits. The right to correct under the second paragraph does not apply when the credit followed a payment order from a third party. If, however, the credit is connected with a criminal offence on the part of the recipient, or of another person who can debit the recipient's account, the bank can always correct it. The fifth paragraph says that the section does not prevent the bank from claiming recovery (getting back money that was paid without grounds) under general rules.
Example: The bank by mistake credits the recipient's account with too high an amount. The bank discovers this quickly. It can then debit the account for the difference by the third business day, and it must notify the customer of the error.
The section applies to errors the bank itself has made. If it is the customer who has given the wrong account number, § 4-26 applies, which says that a payment to the number given is regarded as correctly executed with respect to the account that the number points to. The customer's notification to the bank in case of misuse is set out in § 4-24. The rules on the bank's liability for payments being correctly executed are set out in § 4-28 and § 4-29. Section 4-13 has the title "Right of retention, set-off (motregning) and charging of fees" and refers to this section.
- § 4-19Account information from the bank
- § 4-26Wrong account number: who is responsible and what the bank must do
- § 4-24The customer's duty to give notice of misuse and errors, and the deadline for correction
- § 4-28The bank's liability when the payer has initiated a payment
- § 4-29The bank's liability when the recipient initiates the payment