§ 4-37. The old bank's tasks when switching accounts
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 old bank sends lists and information to the new bank within five business days (virkedager).
- It stops standing orders, moves the balance and closes the account on the date the consumer (forbruker) has chosen.
- The bank can refuse to close the account if there are outstanding obligations or a notice period is still running, but must then notify the consumer immediately.
- The bank cannot block payment instruments (betalingsinstrumenter) before the chosen date.
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
§ 4-37. The tasks of the transferring payment service provider
- send the receiving payment service provider a list of active standing payment orders (betalingsoppdrag) and available information about direct debit (direktebelastning) mandates that are to be moved
- send the receiving payment service provider available information about incoming payments and direct debits that have been carried out regularly during the last 13 months
- cancel standing payment orders with effect from the date the consumer has specified in the authorisation
- transfer any positive balance to the consumer's payment account (betalingskonto) with the receiving payment service provider on the date the consumer has specified in the authorisation
- close the payment account on the date the consumer has specified in the authorisation, provided that the tasks under letters a to d have been carried out and nothing else follows from the third paragraph.
What does this mean?
This section sets out what the old bank (the transferring payment service provider) must do when a consumer switches banks. The tasks are triggered by the request from the new bank and by the consumer's authorisation. The bank sends the new bank lists of standing orders and direct debit mandates that are to be moved, and information about regular incoming payments and debits during the last 13 months. On the date the consumer has chosen, the old bank stops the standing orders, moves any balance and closes the account.
The second paragraph sets a deadline. The lists and information must be sent within five business days. The consumer can also receive them personally if he asks for it.
The third paragraph allows the old bank to refuse to close the account on the chosen date in two cases: the consumer has outstanding obligations connected to the account, or a notice period under § 4-42 first paragraph is still running. Under § 4-42, the customer (kunde) may terminate the account agreement (kontoavtale) at any time, and for a consumer the notice period cannot be longer than one month. In such a case, the bank must immediately notify the consumer that the account cannot be closed, and of the reason.
The fourth paragraph applies to banks that do not have systems for automatically forwarding incoming payments and debits to the new account. They must stop accepting such transactions from the date the consumer has chosen, and explain to the payer or the payee why the transaction is not accepted.
This section has a counterpart in § 4-38, which describes what the new bank must do. Account switching (kontobytte) between states in the EEA (EØS) has its own rules in § 4-39, which refers to the first two tasks here. Under § 4-41, the old bank cannot charge a fee for the information under the first paragraph letters a and b, either from the consumer or from the new bank. The title of § 4-35 is "Authorisation to carry out account switching".
- § 4-36The new bank must ask the old bank to start the account switch
- § 4-42Terminating the account agreement: your rights as a customer
- § 4-38The new bank's tasks when switching accounts
- § 4-39Switching accounts to a bank in another EEA state
- § 4-41Fees when switching bank accounts