Author: Kristian Fiskerstrand

Terra

As it turns out I'm starting to work for a company in the Terra Group.

The Terra Group now consists of about 80 local savings banks and is one of the three dominant groups in the Norwegian savings bank system. Despite the relatively small size of the individual banks in the alliance, they collectively play a significant role in the larger Norwegian banking market. Terra Group banks are often the largest financial players in their local markets, and are typically the main source of financing for their local communities. The banks therefore play a more important role in the Norwegian banking market than their size and market share alone imply.

In terms of total assets, the Terra Group banks have a 6,5% share of the Norwegian banking market. Combined total assets now exceed NOK 114 billion. The Terra Group banks are ranked fourth in Norway for lending to the retail market, with a market share of approximately 9%. The Terra Group banks have a more modest market share for lending to the corporate market, but this is not surprising since the banks focus mainly on the retail market. Total lending by the shareholder banks exceeds NOK 102 billion.

I will be working for a branch related to fund management, with emphazis on pensions.

I'm starting next week, and looking forwards to it.

Post Scriptum!For those of you that worry that I have dropped out of school, I have not. I will do this besides continuing on my Masters of Science in Business and Economics (major in Finance) and the newly enrolled path towards the first year of law school.

Indirect taxes

I get increasingly annoyed by the various indirect taxes in Norway, such as the fees for state services.

Re-regisitering a car is one of them, the fee to the state for purchasing a new appartment is another. The latter fee is about 2 percent of the price. Call me crazy, but I don't think the amount of work increases linearly with the price of the apartment or house.

One of the state's largest income sources is the Value Added Tax (VAT), which is 25 percent for generic items, 11 percent for certain groceries, and a whole bunch of other numbers for various transactions, such as 8 percent for the broadcasting license

When I purchased my car the re-registration fee was about 1300 USD. The cost estimates for the same task is about 50 USD.

After intensified media attention on the subject, the government might get more openness around these fees. The Secretary of Finance and myself probably have different reasons to react, however. Her reasoning is that it is unjustified because it is paid by the common man and not "the rich", a classification she place somewhere between one third and half of the Norwegian population in.

In my opinion these services should be priced at self-cost and not serve as yet another indirect tax.