NBO Prices and Fees 2027: Norges Bank Lifts Charges About 3%
Norges Bank published Circular 4/2026 on 30 October 2026, setting the NBO prices and fees for 2027 in its settlement system. Prices rise by approximately 3 percent compared with 2026, which puts the fixed monthly price for a Group A1 bank at 798,000, up from 778,000. The breach fees do not change.
Banks with an ordinary account in NBO pay a monthly price set by their group; central counterparties, central banks and CLS Bank pay their own monthly price. The circular says prices are set to cover two-thirds of the costs of implementing, developing and operating the system, and attributes the increase mainly to general price and wage inflation and higher licence and operating costs. Last year’s step was larger: Circular 5/2025 raised 2026 prices by approximately 10 percent, partly because bank mergers spread the cost over fewer account holders.
Related reading: NBO Operating Schedule Under T+1: Norges Bank’s 16:45 Incident Cut-Off
The dates that matter:
- 30 October 2026: Circular 4/2026 published, in English and Norwegian with identical figures.
- 2027: the new price list applies; the circular prints no separate start date.
- Each month: the fixed price is debited on the second settlement day of the following month.
- 15:00 each settlement day: the schedule deadline for repaying Scandinavian Cash Pool (SCP) loans and returning SCP deposits.
- 27 November 2026: input deadline for Norges Bank’s consultation on the operating schedule proposed for T+1.
The 2027 NBO prices and fees, line by line
The approximately 3 percent is the circular’s own summary. On my arithmetic the lines move differently: monthly prices rise 2.6 to 2.8 percent, the contingency-account price about 7 percent, and the entry price not at all.
| Price line | 2026 | 2027 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group A1 bank, per month | 778,000 | 798,000 | +20,000 (2.6%) |
| Group A2 bank, per month | 290,000 | 298,000 | +8,000 (2.8%) |
| Group B bank, per month | 36,000 | 37,000 | +1,000 (2.8%) |
| CCPs, central banks and CLS Bank, per month | 36,000 | 37,000 | +1,000 (2.8%) |
| Additional fee, direct participation in the cash leg of securities settlement, per month | 217,000 | 223,000 | +6,000 (2.8%) |
| Contingency account, per year | 14,000 | 15,000 | +1,000 (7.1%) |
| Entry price, banks, single payment | 60,000 | 60,000 | None |
Amounts are as printed in Circulars 5/2025 and 4/2026; the change column is my calculation. The price tables carry no currency label, while the breach-fee table states NOK, and I read the prices as krone amounts. Annualised, the A1 price is 9,576,000 for 2027.
Which group a bank falls into
The circular’s footnotes set the groups, and the group drives most of the bill. Group A covers banks with an ordinary account in active use for at least one of three functions: direct participation in settlement of Norwegian Interbank Clearing System (NICS) clearings, direct participation in Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS), or an agreement to use SCP. Banks that participate directly in CLS and/or have an SCP agreement are A1; other Group A banks are A2. Group B is every other bank with an ordinary account in NBO. The footnotes read word for word as in the 2026 circular.
Two wording points decide borderline cases. The A1 test refers to an agreement to use SCP, so on a literal reading a bank already in Group A becomes A1 through the agreement, whatever it draws under it; in 2027 that is worth 500,000 a month, the gap between the A1 and A2 prices. Where SCP is a bank’s only Group A function, the footnotes do not define how much use counts as active use. The NICS limb needs direct participation, so a bank whose clearings settle through a settlement bank, with no CLS or SCP function, reads to me as Group B.
The Group B label has a second use. Circular 3/2026 defines the third reserve-quota group as all monetary policy counterparties in Group B in NBO, 75 banks as of June 2026, each with the same quota (see our note on Norges Bank Circular 3/2026 reserve quotas). For those banks, the NBO price group also feeds the quota grouping.
Collection: the second-settlement-day debit
Fixed monthly prices are debited automatically from each participant’s account in Norges Bank on the second settlement day of the following month; other prices and fees are invoiced or debited separately. Section 3.7 of the Terms and Conditions for Account Management at Norges Bank gives Norges Bank the right to debit an account holder for claims from account management and NBO participation, including prices and fees.
On my reading, the January 2027 debit settles December 2026 at the 2026 price, and the first debit at a 2027 price falls on the second settlement day of February 2027. Norges Bank’s settlement-days page listed only 2026 dates when checked on 1 November 2026, so that February date is not yet fixed on the page.
The circular does not say whether the annual contingency-account price and the entry price are invoiced or debited.
Breach fees: same amounts, deadlines set elsewhere
The four breach fees for 2027 match the 2026 list in Circular 5/2025:
| Breach | Fee |
|---|---|
| Failure to repay an SCP loan by the deadline in NBO’s operating schedule | NOK 25,000 per occurrence |
| Failure to return deposits used as collateral in Norges Bank under the SCP scheme by the operating-schedule deadline | NOK 50,000 per occurrence |
| Pledge of collateral that does not have a loan value in Norges Bank at maturity or upon redemption | NOK 10,000 per occurrence |
| Loans from Norges Bank above the bank’s credit limit by the end of the settlement day | D-loan rate plus 10 percentage points |
The circular prices the breach; the deadline lives in the operating schedule. The schedule effective from 31 August 2025 sets 15:00 for repayment of loans and return of deposits related to SCP, noting that a violation incurs a fee under the prices-and-fees circular. The proposed T+1 schedule in Norges Bank’s October 2026 consultation shows the same 15:00 for that row; our article on the NBO operating schedule under T+1 covers the later cut-offs it would move.
The Terms supply the mechanics. Under section 5.8.1, an SCP loan from Norges Bank, secured on deposits with Danmarks Nationalbank or Sveriges Riksbank, is returned the same settlement day by the scheduled deadline, and a miss triggers the fee, debited from the settlement account. Section 5.8.2 imposes a fee where the bank does not repay an SCP loan from Danmarks Nationalbank or Sveriges Riksbank, so that its pledged deposits on the collateral account with Norges Bank are not released by the applicable deadline; on my reading, that is the 50,000 case.
For the 10,000 collateral fee, the relevant rule on my reading is section 5.4: pledged securities stop giving access to the lending facilities from the settlement day before redemption or maturity, and release of holdings at Euroclear Bank or Clearstream Banking must be requested by the settlement day before the maturity day.
The credit-limit charge is a rate: the D-loan rate plus 10 percentage points. Norges Bank describes the D-loan rate as its overnight lending rate for banks. Under the Regulation on access to lending and deposit facilities, intraday loans carry zero interest and the borrowing limit equals the value of pledged assets after a haircut set by Norges Bank. On my reading, a loan still above that limit at the end of the settlement day is what draws the D-loan rate plus 10 percentage points.
One cost sits outside the fee table. Section 5.5 of the Terms lets Norges Bank debit an account holder for any cash penalty Norges Bank is charged owing to that account holder’s circumstances, including breaches of the section’s rules on pledge and release requests for securities held at Euroclear Bank or Clearstream Banking.
The legal hook behind the price list
Circular 4/2026 sits in the contractual layer of NBO and creates no report or return. Section 1.3 of the Terms dated 15 April 2024, issued by Circular 2/2024, lists “Prices and fees in Norges Bank’s settlement system” as a supplementary provision, alongside the operating schedule and the collateral guidelines. The Terms rest on sections 3-1 and 3-3 of the Central Bank Act (Act of 21 June 2019 No. 31) and the Regulation of 18 December 2019 No. 2025 on access to borrowing and deposit facilities.
Section 1.6 says changes to prices and fees are notified two months before entry into force and published by circular, with shorter notice allowed where Norges Bank deems it necessary. A 30 October publication sits just over two months before 2027 begins.
Circular 5/2025 removed the fees for incorrectly sent payment orders and for deactivating NBO Online users from 2026. The 2027 circular lists only the four breach fees and states there are no fee changes from 2027. For the wider risk picture around NBO, see our summary of the Norges Bank Financial Infrastructure Report 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a central counterparty joining NBO pay the 60,000 entry price?
The entry-price row names banks only. Circular 4/2026 sets no entry price for central counterparties, central banks or CLS Bank.
Does a bank holding only a contingency account also pay a group price?
Group B requires an ordinary account and the contingency account is for banks without one, so I read the circular as charging the 15,000 annual price and no group price. Section 4.1 of the Terms requires the bank, within 14 calendar days of activation, to tell Norges Bank whether it will deactivate, open an ordinary account or close. The circular prices no activated period separately.
Is an A1 bank that settles the cash leg of securities directly billed 1,021,000 a month?
On my reading, yes: 798,000 plus the 223,000 additional fee, or 12,252,000 a year. The circular lists both as monthly fixed prices and labels the second additional, but prints no combined figure.
How is a mid-year change of group priced, for example a new SCP agreement signed in June?
The circular is silent on proration and on when a new group price starts. Section 1.8 of the Terms directs account-management questions to Norges Bank’s Interbank Settlement Unit (nbo@norges-bank.no).
Which language version governs if the English and Norwegian circulars differ?
Section 1.7 of the Terms gives the Norwegian text precedence for the Terms and the account form; the circular has no language clause of its own.
Related Articles
- NBO Operating Schedule Under T+1: Norges Bank’s 16:45 Incident Cut-Off: the proposed T+1 NBO day, with final NICS Net at 17:00 and an 18:00 close.
- Norges Bank Circular 3/2026: New Reserve Quotas From 1 October: how the NOK 45 billion total quota is split across bank groups.
- Norges Bank Financial Infrastructure Report 2026: What Nordic PSPs Must Track: concentration risk, DORA testing and instant-payment delays.
- EU T+1 Settlement: First Deadline Is 7 December 2026: the EU move to T+1 from 11 October 2027.
Key Takeaways
- Re-base each 2027 NBO budget line on its own increase, which runs from zero for the entry price to about 7 percent for the contingency account.
- Check SCP agreements and direct CLS participation before January: on the footnote’s wording, either one makes a Group A bank A1, at 500,000 a month more than A2.
- Accrue January 2027 at the new price; on the circular’s in-arrears mechanics it is first debited in February.
- Keep SCP repayments and deposit returns inside the 15:00 deadline in the schedule effective from 31 August 2025, which the proposed T+1 schedule repeats: a missed SCP loan repayment costs NOK 25,000 and a missed deposit return NOK 50,000 per occurrence.
- Bring end-of-day borrowing back under the credit limit before the settlement day closes, or the circular’s charge of the D-loan rate plus 10 percentage points applies.
Sources and References
- Norges Bank, Circular 4/2026, Prices and fees: Norges Bank’s settlement system for 2027 (30 October 2026): English; Norwegian
- Norges Bank, Circular 5/2025, Prices and fees for 2026 (31 October 2025): norges-bank.no
- Norges Bank, Circular 2/2024 and Terms and Conditions for Account Management at Norges Bank, 15 April 2024: circular; Terms (PDF)
- Norges Bank, NBO operating schedule effective from 31 August 2025: PDF
- Norges Bank, Consultation on the NBO operating schedule and incident management adapted to T+1 (16 October 2026): consultation page; proposed schedule (PDF)
- Norges Bank, Circular 3/2026, Quotas in the system for the management of bank reserves (1 September 2026): norges-bank.no
- Norges Bank, Regulation on access to lending and deposit facilities (18 December 2019): norges-bank.no
- Norges Bank, Policy rate, more information (D-loan rate): norges-bank.no
- Norges Bank, NBO regulations and forms; settlement days: regulations and forms; settlement days
Before the First 2027 Debit Lands
Circular 4/2026 changes the price amounts and leaves the breach-fee amounts and group footnotes as they were, so the pricing work is classification and accrual: confirm each bank’s group against the footnote tests and have the January accrual at the 2027 price in place before the February debit. The SCP deadlines behind the fees sit in the operating schedule: the schedule effective from 31 August 2025 applies now, Norges Bank expects to publish the final T+1 schedule in December 2026, and comments on the proposal go to post@norges-bank.no by 27 November 2026.
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