Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) is seeking to take the lead in a class action lawsuit against Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), whose collapse in March cost the NOK15trn (EUR 1.25) investor billions of kroner, IPE reports.

According to the media, Carine Smith Ihenacho, who is chief governance and compliance officer of NBIM, told a conference on Thursday that the manager had found legal action against companies it invests in so lucrative that it now wanted to be lead litigator against SVB.

NBIM manages the Government Pension Fund Global, which is commonly known as the oil fund. 

“We actually do take part in quite a few litigations – usually mostly class actions, but we sometimes also pick out cases where we go directly on our own,” she said.

“What we really found is that cost has definitely been outweighed by the gains we got from those litigations,” Iheanahco added. 

“Actually so much so that last week I was in New York to recruit a new securities litigation lawyer, and for the first time, we have filed a petition where we actually asked to be the lead litigator in a class action against SVB, Silicon Valley Bank. So watch that space,” she said.

According to data from its website, the oil fund owned 1% of SVB Financial Group, the owner of SVB, at the end of 2022, with a shareholding worth NOK 1.36bn (EUR 114m). It also owned NOK 1bn of the collapsed lender’s corporate bonds.