Note 25 - Pension

Defined benefit scheme

This pension scheme is administered by a pension fund conferring entitlement to specific future pension benefits from age 67. The schemes include children’s pension and disability pension under further rules. The Group’s defined benefit pension scheme assures the majority of employees a pension of 68 percent of final salary up to 12G. The defined benefit scheme is closed to new members.

Defined contribution scheme

Under the defined contribution pension scheme the Group does not provide a future pension of a given size, but pays an annual contribution to the employees’ collective pension savings. Future pension will depend on the size of the contribution and the annual return on the pension savings. The Group has no further obligations with regard to the employee’s labour contribution after the employer’s annual contribution has been paid. Defined contribution schemes are directly expensed. The Group has made a defined contribution pension scheme available to its employees since 1 January 2008.

Early retirement pension scheme

The banking and financial industry has established an agreement on a contractual early retirement pension scheme (“AFP”) for employees from age 62 to 67. The Bank pays 100 percent of the pension paid from age 62 to 64 and 60 percent of the pension paid from age 65 to age 67. Admission of new retirees ceased with effect from 31 December 2010.

Early retirement pension scheme, new arrangement

The Act relating to state subsidies in respect of employees who take out contractual early retirement pension in the private sector (AFP Subsidies Act) entered into force on 19 February 2010. Employees who take out contractual early retirement with effect in 2011 or later will receive benefits under the new scheme. The new AFP scheme represents a lifelong add-on to National Insurance and can be taken out from age 62. The employer’s premium is determined as a percentage of salary payments between 1G and 7.1G. In keeping with the recommendation of the Norwegian Accounting Standards Board, no provision was made in the financial year for the group’s de facto AFP obligation. This is because the office coordinating the schemes run by the main employer and trade union organisations has so far not performed the necessary calculations.

For further details of the Group’s pension schemes see Note 2 on accounting principles and Note 23 on personnel expenses.

IAS 19R Benefits to employees

As from 1 January 2013 the Group has applied IAS 19R Benefits to Employees and changed the basis for calculation of pension liabilities and pension costs. The Group has previously utilised the corridor approach to account for unamortised estimate deviations. The corridor approach is no longer permitted, and all estimate deviations shall according to IAS 19R be entered in the statement on other income and expenses. Previously return on pension assets was calculated by applying long-term expected return on pension assets. As a result of the application of IAS 19R the period’s net interest expense is calculated by applying the discount rate for the liability at the start of the period to the net liability. Net interest cost consists therefore of interest on the liability and return on the assets, both calculated using the discount rate. Changes in the net pension liability as a result of premium payments and disbursement of pensions are taken into account. The difference between actual return on pension assets and the booked return is accounted for continuously against other comprehensive income.

The corridor as of 1 January 2012 is calculated anew in accordance with the principles set out in IAS 19R by, in part, setting the return on assets for 2012 equal to the discount rate, se tabel below.

As of 31 December 2013 the Group has utilised the new mortality base table K2013 established by Finanstilsynet on 8 March 2013 (K2013FT) as the basis for its calculations. This is then adjusted for an initial mortality rate and a mortality decline. In its table Finanstilsynet utilised an initial mortality rate of 12 per cent, whereas the Group employs 5 per cent. The decline in mortality is also somewhat adjusted compared with Finanstilsynet’s table, but without significantly affecting the liability. Hence the safety margins in the mortality table utilised, K2013BE, are somewhat lower than K2013FT, but in the Group’s assessment the table that is used gives the best estimate of the pension liability on the balance sheet date.

The balance sheet has been reworked as shown above.
Under the previous principle, the pension cost in 2012 amounted to NOK 32m. Due to the change in the principle for dealing with unamortised estimate deviations and calculating net interest expense, the booked pension cost increased to NOK 37m. Comparatives for profits/loss have not been reworked since the change is considered to be insignificant. Capital adequacy, EC-holder ratio (EC-holders’ share of total equity) and other key figures and ratios have not been reworked for previous periods.

The pension scheme arrangement is located in its own pension fund, which has a long-term horizon on the management of its capital. The pension fund seeks to achieve as high a rate of return as possible by composing an investment portfolio that provides the maximum risk-adjusted return. The pension fund seeks to spread its investments on various issuers and asset classes in order to reduce company-specific and market-specific risk. The portfolio thus comprises equity investments in Norwegian and foreign shares. The bond portfolio is essentially invested in Norwegian bonds. Bank deposits are placed in Norwegian banks.