Note 1 - Accounting principles

Accounting principles
SpareBank 1 SMN prepares and presents its quarterly accounts in compliance with the Stock Exchange Regulations, Stock Exchange Rules and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) approved by EU, including IAS 34, Interim Financial Reporting. The quarterly accounts do not include all the information required in a complete set of annual financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the annual accounts for 2020. The Group has in this quarterly report used the same accounting principles and calculation methods as in the latest annual report and accounts with the exception noted below:

Definition of default
The group implemented a new definition of default on 1 January 2021.

The new definition is formulated in accordance with the European Banking Authority’s guidelines on how banks should apply the definition of default in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and clarifications in the Norwegian CRR/CRD IV regulations.

Default is defined in two categories: 1) payment default or 2) default based on manual default marking.

1) Payment default is defined as material payment arrears or overdrafts of more than 90 days’ duration. Threshold values for material arrears or overdrafts are set out in the Norwegian CRR/CRD IV regulations.

2) Default resulting from manual default marking is based to a larger degree on individual credit assessments, and to a lesser degree on automatic mechanisms. Events included in this category are provision for loss on a customer loan, bankruptcy/debt restructuring, forbearance assessments, deferment of interest and instalment payments for more than 180 days, or other indications suggesting considerable doubt as to whether the borrower will perform his obligations.

The new default definition entails the introduction of a ‘waiting period’ during which borrowers are categorised as still in default after the default has been rectified. The waiting period is three months or 12 months depending on the underlying cause of the default.

Furthermore, rules on default marking at group level are introduced whereby corporate customers in default to a group company (e.g. SpareBank 1 SMN Finans Midt-Norge) will also be considered to be in default to the bank. For personal customers, threshold values are specified for default contagion in the group. Where a defaulted exposure exceeds 20 per cent of total exposure, the exposure will be considered to be in default at group level.

The group has with effect from 1 January 2021 also applied the new default definition for accounting purposes for transfer of loans to stage 3. Loan volume in stage 3 has increased in 2021 by NOK 1,017 million, primarily as a result of the new definition. However, there was no significant change in the underlying credit risk over the course of 2021. Comparatives have not been restated.