Finanstilsynet expects Nordnet to reassess risky retail trading

Finanstilsynet expects Nordnet Bank NUF to establish procedures and controls that identify whether retail customers’ trading patterns call for a fresh appropriateness assessment and a warning. In its supervisory report dated 2 September 2026, the regulator maintains this conclusion after considering the Norwegian branch’s objections. The review concerned securities services for non-professional customers, including frequent trading in leveraged and volatile products.

Nordnet does not provide investment adviceFinanstilsynet, but Finanstilsynet says the duty to act in customers’ interests also applies to order execution. Finanstilsynet says the branch must have systems to catch behaviour requiring further follow-up even when its first appropriateness test documents knowledge of complex instrumentsFinanstilsynet. Where later trading calls the original picture of a customer’s knowledge and experience into question, a new assessment may be necessary. If the service or product is no longer appropriate, the customer must be warnedFinanstilsynet.

The report makes the boundary of that follow-up explicit: Finanstilsynet expects warnings in line with the appropriateness rules. It does not regard such warnings as investment advice, and the customer can choose to continue trading afterwards. The report quotes paragraph 74 of ESMA35-43-3006: firms allowing transactions after a warning should evaluate warnings’ overall effectiveness afterwards, including the ratio of warnings followed by transactions to all warnings, and adjust procedures where necessary.

The branch argued, among other things, that systematic monitoring could lack a sufficient data-protection basis, that a special Norwegian monitoring requirement based on trading frequency or losses appeared to go beyond MiFID II risk-information requirements, and that it could interfere with legitimate investment strategies without knowledge of customers’ external holdings. Finanstilsynet rejected the claimed lack of a legal basis for customer follow-up and warningsFinanstilsynet, relying on the good-business-conduct standard. It also stressed that investor protection depends on professional or non-professional classification, rather than whether the customer is a company or an individual.

The regulator also links the branch’s promotion of short-term trading to conflicts of interest: accumulated commissions and spreads increase customer costs and branch income. It says short-term strategies are likely to be riskier than longer-term investment, with leverage amplifying volatility.

Two other findings concern information supplied to customers. Affiliate marketing had included an influencer’s posts that were not clearly labelled as advertising and lacked risk warnings. Nordnet said it had reduced its partner portfolio, ended several collaborations, shifted towards professional editorial partners and strengthened material approval and ongoing monitoring. Finanstilsynet took note of these measures while maintaining that the branch remains responsible for compliant affiliate marketingFinanstilsynet.

For Nordnet Markets products such as bull and bear certificates, mini futures and warrants, the regulator found insufficiently clear information about spread costsFinanstilsynet and ongoing financing interest. The earlier link about commission-free trading did not clearly signal additional costs. Nordnet reported adding direct links from its price lists that identify the information as cost information; Finanstilsynet took note of that response.

The report relies on verdipapirhandelloven §§ 10-9, 10-10 and 10-15.