(A) the establishment and use of oil funds

In the long run, in addition to providing for the aged, Norway's economy also has a big problem related to the overall situation, that is, the consumption of oil resources. Oil revenue has an important impact on the Norwegian economy. At present, the annual oil revenue is about 36.9 billion US dollars, accounting for about 16% of GDP. However, in the next 50 years, due to the limited reserves, oil will inevitably decrease year by year, and it is expected to drop to 2% of GDP by 2050, which may have a major impact on Norwegian industry.

Therefore, in June 1990, the Norwegian parliament passed the Petroleum Fund Act, and decided to establish the Petroleum Fund, aiming at combining the two factors of regulating oil revenue and providing social security, and complementing each other: the Petroleum Fund can be used as a buffer to smooth the short-term changes of oil revenue, and also as a tool to improve fiscal policy management; It can also solve the problem of decreasing oil income, provide tools for social security expenditure and transfer some wealth for future generations. In other words, the Norwegian government set up an "oil fund" to realize the replacement of physical oil reserves and financial assets, so as to reduce future dependence on oil income.

The political parties in the Norwegian parliament have debated many times about the nature and future use of the oil fund. The view of the Norwegian Ministry of Finance is that this fund can only be used for future social security expenditure, so it is suggested that it be renamed as "Social Security Fund" at the budget review meeting held by Parliament in June 5438+February this year, so as to reduce differences on the use of this fund.

(B) the main management model of petroleum funds

The oil fund has three sources of funds, the main source is the transfer from the state's direct fiscal revenue, followed by the taxes and fees paid by oil companies, and the third part is the dividend of the state oil company's investment in shares. In addition, in some years, the government will sell part of its shares in oil companies, and all proceeds will be transferred to the oil fund. The purpose of the oil fund is mainly to pay the national budget deficit excluding oil revenue. As shown in the figure below:

1, management characteristics of petroleum funds

(1) Clarify the responsibilities of fund owners and managers in legal form.

1997 10 The Ministry of Finance issued the Regulations on Petroleum Funds, which further clarified the investment strategy and management system of the funds. In the same year, the Ministry of Finance and the Norwegian Central Bank formally signed an agreement to entrust the management of the Petroleum Fund, clearly stipulating that the Ministry of Finance is the "owner" of the Petroleum Fund and is responsible for exercising the management right of the Petroleum Fund on behalf of the country, including setting the investment target rate of return, setting risk control indicators, evaluating the institutions responsible for daily management, and providing annual reports to the National Assembly. However, the daily specific management matters are entrusted to the Norwegian central bank "Norwegian Bank", which is responsible for "adding value" to the fund and making quarterly reports on its operation, risk control and cost expenditure. Directly responsible to the Ministry of Finance. It is an important content and task of the agreement to clearly define the responsibility boundary between the Ministry of Finance as the "owner" and the Norwegian bank as the "manager". See chart:

(2) a high degree of openness and transparency

According to the agreement, Norwegian banks must hold a quarterly press conference to disclose the contents of the report to the public and publish it on the Internet while providing quarterly reports to the Ministry of Finance on a regular basis. Every year, the operation of the fund and its holdings of stocks, bonds and other assets should be made public and subject to the supervision of the whole society.

(3) Strictly monitor the operation of oil funds at all levels.

The Norwegian parliament can ask the Ministry of Finance about the operation of the petroleum fund, and the Ministry of Finance must explain to the parliament the rationality of the determination of investment objectives, risk policies, investment scope and other standards, and the Ministry of Finance also conducts an independent evaluation of the fund performance. In addition, the National Audit Office will regularly audit the petroleum fund.

2. Investment management of petroleum funds

(1) Organizational Structure of Investment Management Department of Norwegian Bank Petroleum Fund

The special petroleum fund investment management department set up by Norwegian bank currently employs the president of Norway's largest private insurance company as the chief executive officer of the management department, and implements the president responsibility system. Under the stock, fixed income, investment and other departments. As shown in the figure:

(2) Investment strategy of petroleum fund.

The 1997 Petroleum Fund issued by the Ministry of Finance stipulates the investment objectives in principle, requiring the fund to maximize the long-term international purchasing power of the fund assets at an acceptable risk level, while the short-term net value fluctuation is in a relatively secondary position.

In terms of asset distribution structure, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance learned from the operation of American pension funds that investment strategy plays a decisive role in the final 90-95% rate of return; Investment strategy is the choice of investment assets, that is, the proportion of investment in government bonds, private bonds, listed stocks, unlisted stocks and real estate and the distribution of investment in various regions of the world. After studying and referring to the suggestions of internationally renowned fund consulting institutions, the Ministry of Finance stipulates that fixed income instruments account for 50-70% of its total assets and stock instruments account for 30-50%, of which the shareholding ratio in a single listed company does not exceed 3%; The former should invest 45-65%, 25-45% and 0-20% in Europe, America and Asia-Pacific respectively. Among the latter, Europe is 40-60%, and America and Asia-Pacific are 40-60%. According to the recognized market index, the investment benchmark is compiled, and the risk limit is 1.5% tracking error per year. The Ministry of Finance further requires that the benchmark investment portfolio be set accordingly.

The procedure for determining the benchmark portfolio is that Norwegian banks first make suggestions on investment benchmarks to the Ministry of Finance based on the market forecast for a long period of time in the future. The Ministry of Finance made this plan based on the advice of Norwegian Bank, and consulted the international fund consulting agency (Mercer Investment Consulting Company) hired by it, and integrated the opinions of all parties. At present, the basic composition is as follows:

Among them, the FTSE Global Index (including 27 countries) is used for the stock portfolio, and the Riemann Global Fixed Income Index is used for the fixed income portfolio. As of September 2003, the Petroleum Fund held about 2,000 stocks and 7,400 bonds.

(3) Risk policy of petroleum fund

At present, the total risk determined by the Ministry of Finance is 1.5% annual tracking error. In order to prevent unexpected fluctuations, it is stipulated that this standard should be reached at least two years every three years. The Ministry of Finance further stipulates that the proportion of stock portfolio should be controlled between 30% and 50%, and the regional weight can fluctuate 10%. For example, European bonds can fluctuate between 45% and 65%. In order to control the interest rate risk, the correction period of all fixed income portfolios should be between 3 and 7 years.

The Norwegian central bank believes that if we want to implement the strategic objectives set by the Ministry of Finance, we can't implement complete "passive management", but we should make some plans and make some provisions on when and how to make appropriate decisions that deviate from "standard investment", which requires obtaining technical means to achieve these objectives, so as to choose asset portfolio instead of blindly implementing "standard investment". We should leave room for this kind of "active strategic management", of course, mainly following the strategy of "standard investment" or "passive management". But generally speaking, the investment management of "petroleum fund" can be divided into two subsystems, one is "active management" and the other is "passive management"; Running two systems at the same time is an advantage. The information foundation of "active management" is conducive to the effective implementation of the index strategy, and it is familiar with the "standard index" and can also provide a help for the proposed active management.

1997- 1998 Norwegian banks mainly implement "passive management", which is also a requirement for fund management companies, and the assets under active management are less than 1.5%. At that time, the consideration was to accumulate some professional knowledge and experience before making adjustments. Now, the Norwegian bank thinks that it can consider "active management" and concentrate on choosing some external "active management companies" with different styles and types. In order to realize "active management", Mercer, a consulting management company hired by Norwegian Bank, is developing a set of monitoring measures for fund managers. In addition, the company has played a great role in the design of investment philosophy and investment procedures of Norwegian banks.

(4) Selection and encouragement of internal and external managers

Norwegian banks choose external managers through public bidding, and the management contracts signed generally have no fixed term. The winning bidder is an internationally renowned asset management company. As of July 1 day, 2003, Norwegian bank has hired 16 external managers, managed about 9 1 000 million kronor (about1300 million US dollars) of stock assets, hired 8 external managers with fixed income, and managed about 35 billion kronor (about 5 billion US dollars) of fixed assets. Investing through external managers can make full use of their professional advantages and improve the overall income level of the active management part. Due to historical reasons, most of the fixed income assets are still invested by the internal managers of Norwegian banks.

According to the management fee approved by the Ministry of Finance, Norwegian banks can withdraw one thousandth of the fund assets every year to pay the management fee (currently about $654.38 billion per year). In addition, Norwegian banks can also pay a certain percentage of performance management fees according to their investment performance.

(5) Operating performance of petroleum funds

Up to 65438+February 3, 20021day, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance allocated a total of 693 billion kroner to the "Petroleum Fund". In 2002, the total market value of "Petroleum Fund" was 609 billion kroner on February 3, 65438, including 229.8 billion stocks, 378 billion fixed-income bonds and 0.20 billion environmental funds. The actual net rate of return in 2002 was slightly lower than 200 1. In the past six years, its actual net income curve showed a trend of increasing in the first three years and decreasing in the last three years, with an average of 2.53%. Although in recent years, the rate of return of "Petroleum Fund" has been declining and the losses have been increasing, compared with other pension funds, the rate of return of "Petroleum Fund" is not bad in the global stock market downturn.