The Commission itself points out that the Ministry may hand over more decision-making responsibility regarding investment strategy and asset composition to the manager, as is the case with many other sovereign wealth funds. It is also possible that the investment strategy may be broadened to include more unlisted asset classes, such as infrastructure and private equity. These sorts of investments will place heavier demands on executive management and the governance structure and require a larger and more complex organisation. Moreover, demands and expectations concerning the fund’s exercise of ownership rights may increase further. The Commission raises the question of placing the Council on Ethics within the management organisation. This would mean that the organisation given the responsibility of managing the fund will also be given greater responsibility for making ethical assessments. If there are prospects that investment management evolves as I have indicated above, it may be appropriate to organise the management of the fund outside the central bank. The fund must not be compromised The chair of the Central Bank Law Commission has underscored that “the fund must not be compromised” in the event of a new governance model. This was also a concern echoed in the public debate, reflecting fears that changes in the organisation of the fund may give special interests influence over investment management. I would like to highlight four areas that could have serious pitfalls: the primary objective of investment management, the division of responsibility in the governance model, board composition and cost-effectiveness.
Egil Matsen: Government Pension Fund Global - experiences and organisation Speech by Mr Egil Matsen, Deputy Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), Oslo, 27 October 2017. * * * Accompanying slides  Introduction At a press conference in February 2017, Prime Minister Erna Solberg summarised Norway’s management of its oil and gas revenues as follows: “We have been fortunate, but we have also managed our resources well.”1 Many will probably agree with the Prime Minister’s assessment. In 1990, the Storting (Norwegian parliament) passed the Act relating to the Government Petroleum Fund, an important milestone for the management of Norway’s petroleum revenues. The Act draws a distinction between current oil and gas revenues and the spending of these revenues over the central government budget. This distinction has allowed the accumulation of the savings in what is now called the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG). Under the Act, all of the government petroleum revenues are to be placed in the GPFG, which can only be used via the central government budget. Under the fiscal rule, the transfers are to follow the long-term expected annual real return of the GPFG. Chart: A large fund – NOK 8 000 billion The first deposit in the fund was NOK 2 billion and was made in May 1996 by Sigbjørn Johnsen, the Minister of Finance at the time. Today, the value of the GPFG is around NOK 8 000 billon, or almost three times annual mainland GDP.