Jon Nicolaisen, who resigned as deputy governor of the Central Bank of Norway on December 4, at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Seminar in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 22, 2014.
Deputy Governor Jon Nicolaisen, who is married to a Chinese woman, has resigned from his position after failing to renew his security clearance, effective immediately, the Bank of Norway announced Friday.
Nicolaisen explained, “I have been informed by the Norwegian Citizen Security Inspection Board that the reason for not renewing my security clearance is that my wife is a Chinese citizen living in China and that I provide her with financial assistance. At the same time, however, the commission concluded that it was not sufficient for me personally that there were no factors that raised doubts about my eligibility for a security clearance. I must therefore resign.”
As the number two man at the Bank of Norway, Nicolai Larsson is responsible for national oversight of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with assets of more than one trillion euros.
Nicolaisen was appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Norway in 2014 and was re-elected on April 1 last year. He was born in 1959 and married his Chinese wife in 2010.
When he was first appointed deputy governor, the assessment of security clearances was carried out by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.
However, renewal of the security clearance is now under the responsibility of a special financial security agency, which is under the joint jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of National Security.
The security review of Nicholson by the Norwegian Commission for Citizen Security Inspection Board began late last year.
The Norwegian authorities have been accusing China and Russia of spying on Norway.
Relations between Norway and China have been frozen for a long time after Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
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