Suspected insider
trading threatens
bank bailout plan
 Rune Bjerke heads Norway's largest bank, DnB NOR, which is now under investigation for suspected insider trading violations. PHOTO: SVEIN ERIK FURULUND  Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is an old friend and Labour Party colleague of the DnB NOR boss. Both Stoltenberg and Bjerke claim there was no exchange of insider information. PHOTO: SCANPIX  Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, shown here unveiling the government's plan for dealing with a bank liquidity crisis on October 12, doesn't want the insider trading worries to delay implementation of the plan. The plan is up for approval in parliament on Friday. PHOTO: JON-ARE BERG-JACOBSEN |
The chief executive officer of DnB Nor, Rune Bjerke, is an old friend of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv started reporting late last week that there had been lots of contact between Bjerke and the Office of the Prime Minister in the week leading up to announcement of the bank crisis plan on Sunday October 12.
In the last two business days before the plan was unveiled, DnB NOR also sold off NOK 2.3 billion worth of state bonds to other banks just before they fell in value because the bank crisis plan also involved state bonds. State regulators now are investigating whether DnB NOR's profitable sale is linked to any inside information it gained about the looming government crisis plan.
Both DnB NOR's Bjerke and Stoltenberg vehemently deny any improprieties, and Bjerke went on national TV over the weekend to say that he had no knowledge of how the government's plan would work before it was announced Sunday afternoon October 12.
Oofficials at Norway's central bank have since reported that it did have meetings with DnB NOR executives on Thursday October 9 and that DnB NOR, along with several other banks, were given confidential information regarding various solutions for a bank crisis plan.
Today newspaper Dagens Næringsliv published text from electronic messages sent between Bjerke and Stoltenberg on Saturday October 11, the day before the crisis plan was made public. "Hi, Rune," wrote the prime minister, according to Dagens Næringsliv. "It's very good that you have contact with karl eirik (sic, Schøtt-Pedersen, Stoltenberg's state secretary). Keep that up. If you want, I can talk with you directly. If so ring on this number, before 5:30pm..."
Bjerke responded: "Thanks for that ... I'll contact you if necessary ...Volume, three years and a solid and calming statement are what's important now. Good luck, Rune." And Stoltenberg wrote back to his old friend, "Thanks, I'm talking with karl eirik now, good luck to you!"
Opposition demanding "facts on the table"
The apparently close ties between the prime minister's office and DnB NOR have inflamed the opposition, after they also have set off grumbling among DnB NOR's competitors who have come to call the crisis plan "DnB's package." The heads of the Conservatives and the Progress and Liberal parties have sharply criticized both government and DnB NOR, saying it was at the very least inappropriate for DnB NOR to make such large, detailed financial transactions when they already were in a dialogue with the government. They're demanding all facts related to the case, before they vote to approve the plan.
Schøtt-Pedersen claims he did not divulge any confidential information to Bjerke. Lars Sponheim, head of the Liberal Party in opposition, told newspaperAftenposten he hopes that's right.
"If not, we're talking about a serious violation of the law, which would mean that heads will have to roll," Sponheim said.
State regulatory agency Kredittilsynet is investigating. Bjerke has said DnB NOR is conducting an internal investigation as well.
Nina Berglund
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