Norges Bank Investment Management

"NBIM manages the fund on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, which owns the fund on behalf of the Norwegian people. The ministry determines the fund’s investment strategy, following advice from among others NBIM and discussions in Parliament." The fund only employs about 550 people in offices across the entire globe (Oslo, New York, London, Shanghai and Singapore). Management costs were equal to just 0.02 percent of assets in the most recent quarter, down from 0.07 percent five years ago. Norway expects the fund to keep growing through 2025, when it’s predicted to hit 10.5 trillion kroner (or $1.3 trillion at today’s exchange rate). But such estimates are notoriously unreliable. Its current size already exceeds the milestone it wasn’t expected to reach until 2018. With interest rates at record lows and returns hard to come by, the fund’s management is growing less optimistic. Central Bank Governor Oystein Olsen has warned the decline in oil prices means the fund may already have passed its peak. Norway’s government last year made direct withdrawals from the fund for the first time in its history and is expected to take out about 70 billion kroner this year. Meanwhile, Norway has lowered the fund’s expected return to 3 percent from 4 percent.