The Long Road to the Nordic Investment Bank

4.12.2025 • News
Signing the agreement to establish NIB, from left: Finland’s Minister of Justice Kristian Gestrin, Sweden’s Minister of Finance Kjell-Olof Feldt, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Ivar Nørgaard, Norway’s Church and Education Minister Bjartmar Gjerde, and Iceland’s Ambassador to Denmark Sigurður Bjarnason.

On 4 December 1975, the agreement to establish the Nordic Investment Bank was signed at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. To mark this anniversary, we are publishing the opening chapter of a forthcoming history book about NIB.

This chapter, “The Long Road to the Nordic Investment Bank, 1950–1976,” traces the many – often fraught – attempts at Nordic economic cooperation in the post-war decades that ultimately led to the creation of the Bank.

CHAPTER 1 The Long Road to the Nordic Investment Bank, 1950–1976

Written by historian Byron Z. Rom-Jensen, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oslo, the book will offer a comprehensive history of NIB, focusing on its role in Nordic cooperation and its impact on Nordic–Baltic relations. The full volume will be published in 2026, coinciding with NIB’s 50th anniversary.