Companies are registered in the NOTC system at the request of a member firm. This entails an initial assessment of whether it can be assumed that the company’s shares will be traded so that registration can be “justified”. Requests must also be formally submitted to our stock market committee for its views. The committee has, however, accepted registration without any formal discussions provided the company meets certain minimum requirements and FINFO finds the company suitable for registration.

The minimum requirements are:

• A market capitalisation of at least NOK 20 million based on the last share issue price (the company will not be deleted from the NOTC list even if its market capitalisation should later fall below the aforementioned level)
• A history of more than one year (a continuation of operations in a new company may be considered)
• More than 50 shareholders – preferably external ones (apart from founders, management and employees)

All newly registered companies must (after 2002) enter into a separate distribution agreement and thus have an opportunity to use an associated notification system in which the companies can themselves distribute information that is relevant to the share price and other corporate information to the users of the NOTC system. The companies that have entered into such an agreement and thus incurred a separate duty to provide information are stated on a separate list (the A list). Information published by the companies on the A list will also be distributed to our information distributors. The other registered companies are not subject to a corresponding duty to provide information and are stated on the so-called B list.