NBO Operating Schedule Under T+1: Norges Bank’s 16:45 Incident Cut-Off

On 16 October 2026 Norges Bank wrote to banks, financial institutions and banking industry organisations with a proposed NBO operating schedule for the EU move to T+1 securities settlement, with a revised incident management framework. The English consultation page shows publication on 20 October 2026, and Norges Bank expects to publish the final schedule in December 2026.

The new standard closing time of 18:00 is decided and, the letter says, not subject to consultation. The proposals open for consultation include a fourth daily VPO securities settlement, a final NICS Net clearing at about 17:00, a 17:00 deadline for gross payments submitted directly to NBO, and a revised late-day incident regime with a 16:45 notification deadline (15:45 in the currently effective schedule), a 17:30 limit for a delayed final clearing and a 20-minute liquidity window. Consultation questions 2, 4 and 5 ask participants whether their own cut-offs, liquidity redistribution and escalation can work inside those minutes.

Related reading: EU T+1 Settlement: First Deadline Is 7 December 2026

NBO T+1 consultation dates

• 3 November 2025: first consultation letter on adjusting the NBO operating schedule and extending opening hours until 18:00 (input requested by 19 December 2025).
• 16 October 2026: current consultation letter; English consultation page published 20 October 2026.
• 27 November 2026: response deadline, to post@norges-bank.no with the subject line “Consultation – new operating schedule and incident management”.
• December 2026: final NBO operating schedule expected.
• 11 October 2027: EU T+1 date set by Regulation (EU) 2025/2075.

How a CSDR amendment reaches Norges Bank’s settlement system

Regulation (EU) 2025/2075 of 8 October 2025 amends the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) so that the intended settlement date for in-scope transactions executed on trading venues is no later than the first business day after the trade from 11 October 2027, subject to specified exemptions. Finanstilsynet treats the act as EEA-relevant and expects Norwegian participants to adapt in the same way as in the EU.

The link to NBO is the cash leg. Securities move at the central securities depository, Euronext Securities Oslo (ES-OSL), while cash settles in central bank money in NBO, synchronised for delivery versus payment. Norges Bank’s 2025 letter cites sections 1-2, 1-3 and 3-3 of the Central Bank Act for its role and recorded the starting point: a 14:15 cut-off for securities settlement instructions, the last securities settlement in NBO at 14:30 (although the effective NBO schedule lists VPO 3 at approximately 14:35), and three securities settlements a day. ES-OSL’s T+1 working group found that cut-off too early; in line with the EU T+1 Industry Committee recommendation the letter puts the cut-off for securities trades at 16:00. Our Norges Bank Financial Infrastructure Report 2026 note covers wider NBO risks.

The T+1 requirement is the new CSDR Article 5(2), and its application in Norway depends on incorporation into the EEA framework. NBO’s hours sit in Norges Bank’s own operating schedule, alongside its terms and conditions for account management, and the 2025 letter says major changes to both are circulated for comment before they are determined. The 2026 letter gives no go-live date for the new schedule. The 2025 letter framed the work around 11 October 2027; until the final schedule is published, its start date is unconfirmed.

The proposed NBO operating schedule, side by side

The letter’s figures compare the two days; the attached schedule marks new or changed times “Revised”. The “current” column follows the NBO operating schedule effective from 31 August 2025, which gives final NICS Net and NICS Real settlement at approximately 15:45 and 15:50 and the opening of a new settlement day at approximately 16:45. The letter’s Figure 1 labels the same points 15:35 and 16:40, so the two documents differ by minutes at those points. The 16:35 closing time is the same in both.

“About” has a defined meaning in the letter. For NICS Net and NICS Real, settlement in NBO within 10 minutes of the stated time is normal processing; a later NICS Net settlement is an incident. The letter states that the deadline for submitting transactions to NICS Net is set by Bits, five minutes before the NBO settlement time in the proposed schedule, and gives 16:54:59 for the final clearing. That deadline concerns submission to NICS Net and differs from the time at which a clearing is delivered to NBO. The submission deadline in Bits’ currently effective NICS rules is a separate matter and should be checked against those rules.

VPO 4 timing is ES-OSL’s decision: if no participant needs additional liquidity, it normally settles in NBO at around 16:05; otherwise the start waits for the liquidity, and VPO 4 settles in NBO no later than 16:20. Norges Bank notes that historical liquidity patterns indicate extra liquidity is generally available before the cut-off.

The 2025 letter projected ordinary F-auctions moving to between 17:20 and 17:40 if the last NICS Net clearing moved to 17:00. The 2026 proposal moves the bidding deadline to 16:00, so allotment precedes the final clearing and roughly an hour remains before the 18:00 close for banks to redistribute liquidity and for any fine-tuning operations. Under Norges Bank’s liquidity policy, that redistribution is how banks bring reserves below their individual quotas, the mechanism covered in our Norges Bank reserve quotas article.

The rest of the afternoon

Other revised cut-offs in the attached schedule: 16:30 for requests to register or release securities held by Euroclear Bank and Clearstream Banking as collateral for loans, with later same-day requests automatically rejected and needing resubmission for a later NBO settlement date; 16:30 for the bilateral limit cut-off; 17:25 for rejecting the final NICS Net clearing if a bank lacks funds, followed by recalculation without that bank; and 17:55 for closing the Straks LOM account to changes in collateral for instant payments in NICS Real. At 18:00 queued payment orders with insufficient funds are cancelled.

One drafting point merits a question. Footnote 2 of the schedule lists VPO LOM lock times for all four batches, then gives delayed-settlement deadlines for VPO 1, 2 and 3 and adds that no deadline has been set for settlement of VPO 3. The second reference probably means VPO 4, but the text does not say so.

NBO incident management under T+1: what tightens

Norges Bank proposes reserving extended opening hours primarily for critical incidents. If the final NICS Net clearing is delayed, it should as a general rule be completed by 17:30, which the letter calls a tightening of the current rules without quantifying the current limit.

Later settlement is discretionary. In a critical incident Norges Bank may allow it and extend opening hours on an overall assessment, weighing:

• the cause of the incident and its expected duration;
• the estimated number and value of affected payments;
• potential knock-on effects;
• the availability of alternative solutions.

The post-incident liquidity window halves: 20 minutes after a delayed final clearing is posted, against 40 minutes now, on the presumption that adjustment needs will normally be limited. Norges Bank asks whether 20 minutes is enough. Adding 20 minutes, a clearing posted at the 17:30 limit leaves the window ending at 17:50.

The 16:45 notice and the conditions attached

Under the proposal, a participant expecting an incident to require later settlement or extended NBO hours must notify Norges Bank as soon as possible and no later than 16:45, a time the letter ties to the 17:00 gross-payment deadline.

Notifying on time secures nothing by itself: the letter says it does not mean later settlement or extended hours will be granted, and each case is assessed on the incident’s nature and impact. The currently effective schedule (31 August 2025) already carries a contact deadline for this situation, 15:45, in its footnote 5, with a test that the participant’s transactions total a “substantial amount”, individually or in aggregate volume. The proposed schedule’s 16:45 row covers requests due to significant operational issues at a participant, and its comment requires transactions of significant value, individually or in aggregate volume; the letter’s prose does not mention that test. A request for transactions significant on neither measure would not meet that wording.

Question 5 asks whether the deadline would require changes to internal procedures or coordination with an operational service provider. Where payment operations are outsourced, my reading is that the provider-to-participant-to-Norges Bank escalation has to finish inside that time.

What the 2025 responses already told Norges Bank

Norges Bank’s summary of the 2025 round records seven responses. Respondents broadly supported the 18:00 close and a fourth VPO settlement. Most wanted the extra NICS net clearing at 17:00 or later, while some recommended a final NICS clearing no later than 16:45 to align with other Nordic and European systems. Some warned of a significantly shorter buffer between the new VPO settlement and the last NICS net clearing, and respondents asked for F-auction timing and collateral cut-offs to be considered alongside the longer day.

The 2026 proposal lands on 17:00, moves the bidding deadline and marks the 16:30 collateral request deadline as new or revised. This second round tests whether they fit each bank.

Building a response before 27 November

Questions 1 and 2 cover the schedule: views on the proposed times and the gross-payment deadline, and how long a bank normally needs to redistribute liquidity after the final NICS Net clearing. Norges Bank says that answer will help set the gap to the close, so in my view a figure measured on actual settlement days is the more useful one. Questions 3 to 6 take the incident proposals in turn. Norges Bank also expects participants to adapt their systems, processes and internal operational deadlines. Trade-side T+1 changes are covered in our CSDR messaging protocols guidelines explainer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the 17:00 gross-payment deadline also cover NIBE Brutto files?

The 17:00 deadline is for gross payments submitted directly to NBO. A footnote in the letter’s appendix says NIBE Brutto gross payment files follow the same deadlines as NICS Netto, so, read literally, they would work to the 16:54:59 final-clearing cut-off in the letter. Bits’ rules for NIBE Brutto and NICS Netto should be checked for any difference.

Does the 17:30 limit apply to intermediate NICS Net clearings?

The letter states it for the final clearing only. For intermediate clearing 4 the schedule instead runs an insufficient-funds sequence: Norges Bank notifies NICS Operations at 15:55, and at 16:30 the clearing is rejected and recalculated without the bank concerned.

Is the EU T+1 amendment already part of Norwegian law?

Its EEA incorporation is pending: EFTA’s EEA-Lex record lists only a draft Joint Committee Decision, sent to the Commission on 28 January 2026. That status merits rechecking before Norwegian law is cited.

Can Norges Bank depart from the published schedule on a given day?

Yes: the schedule says Norges Bank may deviate in special cases such as emergency situations and during periods of the year, with planned deviations announced separately.

Will our response be made public, and what if we have no comments?

Responses will be published on Norges Bank’s website, as the 2025 responses were. A participant with no specific comments is asked to confirm that it has reviewed the proposal.

Related Articles

• Norges Bank Circular 3/2026: New Reserve Quotas From 1 October: per-bank reserve quotas from 1 October 2026 and how deposits above them are remunerated.
• Norges Bank Financial Infrastructure Report 2026: What Nordic PSPs Must Track: concentration risk, DORA testing and instant-payment delays in Norwegian payment infrastructure.
• UK T+1 Settlement: The FCA’s 2027 Readiness Warning: the UK track to the same 11 October 2027 date.
• TARGET Services June 2027 Release: Swift ISO 20022 and the T+1 Squeeze: aligning Swift’s securities messaging upgrade with the June 2027 TARGET release.

Key Takeaways

• Route each question to the owner of the time: Norges Bank for NBO hours and incident rules, Bits for NICS Net submission, ES-OSL for the VPO 4 start.
• Write the significant-value test into the payments incident runbook.
• Ask any operational service provider for timestamped evidence that its escalation reaches the participant before the notice deadline.
• Raise the drafting gaps between the letter and its attachment, the two new-day opening times and the VPO 3 footnote wording, in the response.
• Keep the NBO go-live date open in project plans until the December 2026 schedule states it.

Sources and References

• Norges Bank, Consultation – NBO operating schedule and incident management adapted to T+1, letter of 16 October 2026, published 20 October 2026: consultation page
• Norges Bank, consultation letter including appendix and consultation questions (PDF): consultation-nbo-operating-schedule-2026.pdf
• Norges Bank, Operating schedule for Norges Bank’s settlement system (NBO), effective from 31 August 2025 (PDF): current operating schedule
• Norges Bank, Operating schedule for Norges Bank’s settlement system (NBO), adapted shorter settlement cycle (T+1) (PDF): operating-schedule-for-nbo.pdf
• Norges Bank, Consultation: Adjustments to the operating schedule for Norges Bank’s settlement system (NBO) and extended opening hours until 18:00, letter of 3 November 2025: consultation page and letter with attachments (PDF)
• Norges Bank, summary of responses to the 2025 NBO operating schedule consultation (Norwegian, PDF): summary of responses
• Regulation (EU) 2025/2075 of 8 October 2025 amending Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 (CSDR) as regards a shorter settlement cycle: EUR-Lex
• ESMA, Final Report on the revised CSDR Guidelines on standardised procedures and messaging protocols used between investment firms and their professional clients, ESMA74-2119945926-3749, 16 October 2026: ESMA PDF
• Finanstilsynet, transition to a shorter settlement cycle (T+1) (Norwegian): Finanstilsynet T+1 page
• EFTA, EEA-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2025/2075
• Act relating to Norges Bank and the monetary system etc. (Central Bank Act), LOV-2019-06-21-31: Lovdata

Before the December NBO schedule is fixed

The 18:00 standard closing time has already been decided, while the proposed changes to other settlement times and incident arrangements remain subject to consultation. Unchanged provisions of the currently effective NBO schedule, such as the 05:30 opening and VPO 1 timing, continue to apply until superseded, and the final schedule is expected in December 2026. A bank that wants its measured redistribution time and its provider’s escalation path reflected in it has until 27 November 2026 to send that evidence to post@norges-bank.no.

Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.