Information for holders of shares in the US

How does DNB hold shares in a foreign country?

DNB holds international shares in a client account in a securities depository of which we, as a bank, are a member. Alternatively, we can hold shares in a client account through an agent bank in markets where DNB is not itself a member of the securities depository. US shares, like Gamestop, are held in a client account in DNB’s US agent bank.

Your shares are held separately from DNB’s or any agent bank’s own funds and would not form part of an estate in bankruptcy. All shares are stored and moved in electronic form according to the rules of the local market.

Can DNB or the agent bank lend my shares?

No, neither DNB nor DNB’s agent banks lend shares belonging to DNB’s customers without explicit instructions from the customer.

Can I move my shares to direct registration with the account manager?

Yes, let’s say for example that you have bought GME shares through DNB. On your instructions, we can then move shares to direct registration with the company’s account manager in the US.

We only execute these moves for our own customers

DNB cannot receive individual transfers of US shares from other investment firms. If you would like to move your shares to DNB, you must become a DNB customer and instruct DNB to move your whole portfolio from the other investment firm.

A transfer can take some time

Let’s take the example of Gamestop (GME) again. The account manager for GME is Computershare. If you move your shares to Gamestop’s account manager, you will lose the ability to control the shares in the time period between the shares being delivered from DNB until you have been given full access to your account held by the account manager.

We allow 10 working days in order to instruct the move of shares to an account manager and when the shares are delivered to the account manager, neither you nor DNB will have access to them until you have been given full access to your account held by the account manager.

The shares will be made unavailable from your portfolio in DNB from the moment DNB initiates the moving process, but this does not mean that the shares have been delivered to the account manager.

After the transfer, you must liaise directly with the account manager in the US

When the shares have been delivered to the account manager in the US, you will receive a statement by regular post from the account manager with information about how you can activate your new account on the account manager’s website. When you have activated the account, you will receive new log-in information by regular post which you can use to access your shares held by the account manager. In other words, it can take a long time from the moment you lose access to your shares in DNB until you access them through the account holder.

When the shares are delivered to the account holder, you will no longer be able to sell them via DNB. DNB will not be able to report these shares to the tax authorities either, and so you must therefore report this in your tax return.

Your account with Computershare will not contain the taxable cost price of the shares which are transferred from DNB. If you would like to sell your shares held by Computershare at a later date, you must take steps to ensure that your account at Computershare is “tax certified”, and you must report relevant information to the Norwegian tax authorities.

NOTE! DNB has no relationship to the account manager, which means that when your shares have been moved from DNB to the account manager in the US, you must liaise directly with the account manager there.

How to request the transfer of your shares

If you wish to transfer your US Shares to an account manager in the US, you must send us a message when you are logged in to your page in the online bank with the following details:

1. National identity number/organisation number related to your securities account in DNB
2. First name, surname and address
3. Name/ticker of the share to be transferred to the account manager (e.g. GME if it concerns Gamestop)
4. The number of shares to be transferred.

Transferring shares to an account manager in the US costs NOK 2000.

Log in to the online bank, go to the equity trading service and click on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.

How can I take part in the Annual General Meetings (AGM) in the US?

If you are a DNB customer and own shares traded and held in the US, you can participate in most AGMs there. However, to exercise your right to participate, a control number must be set up. The control number is linked to the shareholding in your securities account for international trading. You can order this through us by sending an email to the email address below, and we will place the order on your behalf via a depository in the US.

As soon as you have received your control number, you can go to www.proxyvote.com and vote.

It costs NOK 2000 to set this up

There is currently a fee of NOK 2,000 to set this up and create a control number on your behalf. See the price list further down on this page.

If DNB does not provide the control number before the deadline for participating in the AGM, you will of course not be charged.

I have questions that have not been answered above. Who should I contact?

If you have further questions about participating in AGMs or your ownership of international shares, send us your question by email and we will answer within 24 hours.