Note 14 - Financial instruments and offsetting

The Group has no financial instruments booked on a net basis in the financial statements.

SpareBank 1 SMN has two sets of agreements which regulate counterparty risk and netting of derivatives. For retail and corporate customers, use is made of framework agreements requiring provision of collateral. For customers engaged in trading activity, only cash deposits are accepted as collateral. The agreements are unilateral, i.e. it is only the customers that provide collateral. Regarding financial institutions, the Bank enters into standardised and mainly bilateral ISDA agreements. Additionally the Bank has entered into supplementary agreements on provision of collateral (CSA) with the most central counterparties. As of year- end 2015 the Bank has 26 active CSA agreements. The Bank only enters into agreements with cash as collateral. The Bank has delegated responsibility for handling these agreements to SEB Prime Collateral Services which handles margin requirements on behalf of the Bank.

In the case of securities and derivatives that are traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the subsidiary SpareBank 1 Markets uses DNB ASA as clearing agent vis-a-vis Oslo Clearing. Any margin collateral is paid to a DNB account. DNB operates as agent between SpareBank 1 Markets and Oslo Clearing. Hence Oslo Clearing is SpareBank 1 Markets’ counterparty.

The table shows what the Parent Bank and the Group can offset in the event of bankruptcy or default.