Panama papers

Norway to regulate $850 billion fund's tax haven exposure-lawmakers

Norway will take a first step this week towards using its $850 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, as a tool to combat the use of tax havens, two key members of parliament's finance committee told Reuters on Wednesday.

The country's right-wing minority government will be asked to take a two-pronged approach to regulation, examining both the fund's own use of ownership structures designed to cut its liability for tax on its foreign investments as well as that of companies it invests in, the politicians said.

The move follows the Panama Papers leaks in April, which revealed details of corporate and individual tax evasion and triggered a global backlash against tax havens.

"We need to clarify the extent of the fund's exposure to tax havens," said finance committee chairman Hans Olav Syversen of the centrist opposition Christian Democrats, on which the government frequently relies for support.