The Norwegian Accounting Standards Board

(Norsk RegnskapsStiftelse (NRS))

P.O. Box 2914 Solli, N - 0230 Oslo

Tel: + 47 23 36 52 00

Fax: + 47 23 36 52 02

E-mail: nrs [at] revisorforeningen.no

Chair Accounting Standars Board: Elisabet Ekberg (KPMG, Bergen)

Chair Technical Committee on IFRS: Erlend Kvaal (Handelshøyskolen BI, Oslo)

Chair Bookkeeping Standards Board: Trond Tømta (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Oslo)

Chief Executive: Harald Brandsås (Technical Director, The Norwegian Institute of Public Accountants)

Structure of organization
NASB is a private body. The founding members of the Norwegian Accounting Standards Board (Norsk RegnskapsStiftelse) are:

• The Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry
• The Norwegian Association of Authorised Accountants
• The Norwegian School of Management
• The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
• The Norwegian Institute of Public Accountants
• The Norwegian Association of MBA Graduates
• The Norwegian Society of Financial Analysts
• The Oslo Stock Exchange

The founding members name one person each to a supervisory board which have some administrative duties. The supervisory board elect the members of the Accounting Standards Board and the Bookkeeping Standards Board after proposal from an election committee. The election committee consist of 4 members, the chair of the supervisory board, the vice chair of the supervisory board, one member of the Accounting Standards Board who is not on election, one member of the Technical Committee on IFRS who is not on election and one member of the Bookkeeping Standards Board who is not on election.

The Accounting Standards Board, the Technical Committe on IFRS and the Bookkeeping Standards Board each consist of 8-11 members. The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway and the Ministry of Finance each have one observer at the Accounting Standards Board. The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway has one observer at the Technical Committee on IFRS.

Norwegian Accounting Standards
The Norwegian Accounting Standards Board publishes:

• discussion papers
• exposure drafts
• preliminary accounting standards
• accounting standards (final)

All standards (final) are mandatory. All standards must be in compliance with the Norwegian Accounting Act (1998). A preliminary standard, which is the second step from an exposure draft to a final standard, is recommended to be applied.

With the exception of small companies, which can choose to apply a separate standard for SMEs, all companies have to comply with the standards, as described above. A few standards contain paragraphs for certain industries.

Statements on generally accepted bookkeeping practice
All statements are mandatory.

Funding
The activity is mainly financed by the accounting conferences. None of the board members are paid for the work. 

Relationships

• Ministry of Finance: the Ministry of Finance has one observer at the Accounting Standards Board. 
• Stock exchange: the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) is one of the founders. Some of the members of the standard setting board are also members of the Oslo Stock Exchange accounting committee.
• Accountancy profession: the two, at that time, institutes where among the founders of the standard setting body.  Members of the present merged institute, The Norwegian Institute of Public Accountants, have central positions in standard setting body.  The institute has the responsibility of the secretariat of the standard setting body.
• Other stakeholders: all founders are participating in the standard setting process.
• Internationally: NRS participates in the Consultative Forum of European Standard Setters of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). NRS has annual meetings with other Scandinavian standard setters. NRS host IFRS round tables in Oslo, some with participation from the IASB and with involvement from EFRAG.

Interpretations
The Norwegian standard setter does not operate an urgent issue task force type of activity, but can in certain cases issue interpretations of the standards.

Frequently asked questions to the Norwegian Accounting Standards Board in English

• A standard can be purchased from Pronorm AS, the sales company of Norwegian Standardization, which specifies the income statement and balance sheet formats to be used for annual accounts. It also includes an accounting system with guidelines for preparation of an accounting system for individual enterprises and industries adapted to the income statement and balance sheet formats. The accounting system is designed to provide specifications, whenever possible, for reporting to public institutions, accounting analysis, accounting comparison, etc. Link to Pronorms webpages for ordering the standard
  

• The Norwegain Accounting Act has been translated to English and published by Den norske Revisorforening (the Norwegian Institute of Public Accountants). Please see more information at www.revisorforeningen.no - eBooks. Other supplisers may also have issued translations that we are not aware of.

• Regrettably the Norwegian accounting standards have not been translated to English, and are only available in Norwegian. The Accounting Standards in Norwegian are freely available.

• The Norwegian Bookkeeping Act and the statements from the Bookkeeping Standards Board have been translated to English and published by Den norske Revisorforening. Please see more information at www.revisorforeningen.no - eBooks. Other supplisers may also have issued translations that we are not aware of.

• Norwegian listed companies are required to use international accounting standards - IFRS - in the consolidated accounts (in the EU/Norwegian regulation version). If a listed company is not required to issue consolidated accounts, it is required to use IFRS in the separate accounts. Otherwise, Norwegain companies are allowed to use IFRS (in the EU/Norwegian regulation version) in the consolidated accounts and separate accounts. Certain entities in the finance sector like banks, insurance companies etc. have industryspecific regulations, which for the most part require such companies the use of IFRS. The tax rules in Norway is a separate set of rules, independant from the accounting regulation. Because Norway is only part of the European Ecconomic Area, and not the EU, the legal process for the IFRS regulation has an extra layer. The IFRS regulation has to put into force as a part of Norway law. This is done by a separate bylaw (in Norwegian) to the Norwegian Accounting Act. The bylaw currently does not show the IFRS-standards in consolidated text. However:

• • A consolidated version of the IFRS-standards in Norwegian is available in a book published by Den norske Revisorforening - 'IFRS på norsk'. Please see the Bookshop of Den norske Revisorforening.

  • The companies DIBkunnskap and Gyldendal Rettsdata each has a knowledge database for IFRS. The information is partly in Norwegian and partly in English. Both also include a consolidated version of the IFRS-standards, side by side in Norwegian (EU/Norwegain regulation) and English. For more information, see dib.no and rettsdata.no.

  • IFRS-standards in English is available from IASB.

  • For information about IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) see the Website of the IASB (International Accounting Standards Board). At the Website there is also a section on Frequently Asked Questions related to IASB and IFRS. 

• Missing information on our Website: If there is any information you would like to see on our Website that is not there, please send an email to nrs [at] revisorforeningen.no. We can not promiss to follow your suggestion, but it will be considered.