The Central Bank of Iceland shall monitor the compliance of the activities of regulated entities with laws, regulations and rules or resolutions governing such activities, and their consistency in other respects with sound and proper business practices.
The Central Bank supervises the activities of the financial undertakings, insurance undertakings, pension funds and other undertakings in the financial market, cf. Article 2 of Act No. 87/1998 (in Icelandic) on the Official Supervision of Financial Activities.
Regulated activities
| Operation | Act (in Icelandic) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Commercial banks | ||||
Savings banks | ||||
Credit undertakings (investment banks) | ||||
Investment firms | ||||
UCITS management companies | ||||
Alternative investment funds managers | ||||
UCITS funds | ||||
Alternative investment funds | ||||
Money market funds | ||||
European venture capital funds and European social entrepreneurship funds | ||||
European long-term investment funds | ||||
Issuers of covered bonds | ||||
Managers of financial benchmarks | ||||
Credit rating agencies | ||||
Depositors and investors' guarantee fund for financial undertakings | ||||
Insurance companies | ||||
Holding companies, insurance groups and financial conglomerates | ||||
Insurance brokers and other distributors | ||||
Stock exchanges and other regulated markets | ||||
Central securities depositories | ||||
Pension funds and depositories of pension savings | ||||
Debt collection agencies | ||||
Payment institutions and other payment service providers | ||||
Electronic money institutions | ||||
Currency exchange services | ||||
Crypto-asset service providers | ||||
Branches of foreign companies located in Iceland and falling under points a–e of paragraph 1 of Article 2 of Act no. 140/2018. | ||||
Agents and distributors representing foreign financial institutions with operations in Iceland falling under points a–e of paragraph 1 of Article 2 of Act no. 140/2018. | ||||
Creditors and credit intermediaries | ||||
Creditors and credit intermediaries in accordance with Act no. 33/2013 on Consumer Credit falling under point a of paragraph 1 of Article 2 of Act no. 140/2018. |
Supervision of securities market
The Central Bank also supervises:
Acquisitions of issuers whose securities have been admitted to trading on a regulated securities market | |
Investment services and the practice of investment activities | |
Short selling and credit default swaps | |
Derivatives trading, central counterparties and derivatives trade repositories | |
Market abuse | |
Disclosure obligations of issuers of securities and flagging requirements | |
Financing transactions with securities | |
Published prospectuses when a public offering of securities is called or they are admitted to trading on a regulated market | |
Market infrastructure for financial instruments based on distributed ledger technology |
Other supervision
The Central Bank also supervises inter alia:
Insurance contracts | |
Distance selling of financial services | |
Key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products | |
Information on sustainability in the field of financial services and taxonomy for sustainable investments |
Supervision of winding-up boards
The Central Bank has special supervision of the winding-up of financial undertakings, which is managed by winding-up boards, regardless of whether the undertaking in question holds an operating licence, limited operating licence or the operating licence has been revoked, cf. Article 101(a) of Act no. 161/2002 (in Icelandic) on Financial Undertakings.
Activities of domestic entities abroad and foreign entities in Iceland
Supervision of the activities of domestic entities abroad and foreign entities in Iceland is subject to the provisions of special laws and the international agreements to which Iceland is a party.