Finanstilsynet withdraws its 2020 board-suitability guidance

Finanstilsynet has withdrawn its 2020 guidance on boards’ evaluation of their collective suitability at banks, mortgage institutions and related holding companies. The withdrawal notice, dated 20 August 2026Retsinformation, identifies Guidance 9172 of 30 March 2020Retsinformation. It is a withdrawal of that guidance, rather than an amendment to the statutory provisions discussed in it.Retsinformation

The withdrawn text explained Finanstilsynet’s interpretation of the board’s collective-suitability requirement under section 70(4) of lov om finansiel virksomhed. It addressed whether members collectively had sufficient knowledge, professional competence and experience to understand the business and its risks. It expressly distinguished individual members’ fit-and-proper requirements under section 64, which it did not address.

Its framework started with the institution’s business model and risk profile. It then considered the knowledge and experience the board needed, what members actually possessed, gaps between those positions and proposed ways to address those gaps. The text included employee-elected members in the collective assessment and addressed adaptations for holding-company and group circumstances.

The former evaluation guidance also discussed audit-committee competence, evidence such as members’ CVs, and circumstances calling for renewed evaluation, including changes in board composition or the business model. It described recording the board’s considerations at least annually in the board minutes and said there were no prescribed formal requirements for the self-evaluation. These are descriptions of the withdrawn document’s content.

The withdrawal is therefore relevant to institutions whose board-evaluation procedures refer to that specific guidance. The notice does not specify a replacement evaluation method or a new reporting deadline.Retsinformation Nor does its operative wording remove the statutory provisions referred to in the old guidanceRetsinformation: it names the guidance that ceases to apply.

The documentary basis is Finanstilsynet’s notice of 20 August 2026 withdrawing Guidance 9172 of 30 March 2020 on boards’ evaluation of collective suitability, read with the withdrawn guidance to identify the subject and scope of the change.