Norway Needs Higher Risk Weights on Mortgages, Qvigstad Says

Norges Bank Deputy Governor Jan F. Qvigstad said Norway should tighten risk weights on mortgage loans to free up capital for other lending and ease pressure in the housing market.

“One problem is that the risk weights for housing loans are very low,” he said today in interview in Lillehammer, Norway. “If that had been higher the banks would have been more eager to lend to businesses relative to households and housing.”