NICS is the interbank clearing system for the Norwegian Krone (NOK) and is used by all banks operating in Norway and that take part in the Norwegian banking community’s infrastructure for payments.
NICS is a payments clearing system as defined in Norwegian Payment Systems Act, § 1-1. NICS is important for financial stability and is hence subject to authorisation from the Central Bank of Norway, Norges Bank. Norges Bank has authorised Bits for the management of NICS. Therefore, it is Bits’ obligation to ensure that NICS has operational stability, supports financial stability and promotes an effective, domestic payment system.
Bits has outsourced the technical operations to Mastercard Payment Systems Infrastructure (MPSI).
On an annual basis, NICS processes over 2,7 billion payment transactions with an estimated total value of 87 789 billion NOK.
