Can a prokurist sign a loan or a mortgage on company property?

The hard statutory line is real property: a prokurist cannot sell the company's real property and cannot mortgage it, so a mortgage deed over the company's premises needs a signaturrett holder or a specific authority granted for that transaction. For other commitments, such as ordinary loan documents, the question is whether they sit inside the day-to-day operation of the business, and that is a judgement the counterparty has to make. When the signature matters, read which right the signer actually holds instead of assuming the title covers it.

Can one person hold both signaturrett and prokura?

Yes, and it is common. The two rights are registered independently, so the same name can appear under both on the company's extract, for example a daglig leder who holds prokura alone plus signaturrett jointly with a board member. Since signaturrett is the general authority to bind the company, it covers in practice everything prokura covers; the narrower right still matters because it can be granted and withdrawn separately, and because the registered combinations for each right can differ.

Is prokura granted to one person alone or to several jointly?

Both forms exist, and the registered text decides. A company can register one prokurist who signs alone, or several who must sign jointly, and the extract states the combination in force. This is why reading the text matters more than spotting the word prokura: a jointly held prokura is not exercised by one person alone. When Apier resolves a company's signing picture, these combinations are part of what reduces to the sole, joint, by-role or prokura-only classification.

How do I check who holds signaturrett or prokura in a company?

Read the company's registry extract, or make one API call: GET /api/v1/company/{org}/authority returns the classification together with the named signaturrett and prokura holders. Note the open-data limit while you build: the open Enhetsregisteret role feed has no role group for either right, because the signing texts are Foretaksregisteret data. An integration built only on the open role feed therefore answers unknown for both rights; it never has grounds to answer that nobody holds them.

Does daglig leder automatically have signaturrett?

No. Neither right follows the job title. For an aksjeselskap the starting point is that the board acts for the company, and signaturrett is something the board decides within the frame of the articles of association and then registers. Many companies do grant daglig leder signaturrett or prokura, and many do not, so the register text is the only reliable answer. Before relying on a managing director's signature for anything binding, check what is actually registered.

What is the difference between prokura and signaturrett?

By Antony Richard Grov, founder of Apier

Signaturrett is the general authority to bind a Norwegian company: whoever holds it can sign anything in the company's name. Prokura is a narrower authority for the day-to-day operation of the business, and it carries one statutory limit under prokuraloven: a prokurist cannot sell the company's real property, and cannot mortgage it. Both rights are registered through a Samordnet registermelding in Altinn and appear as text on the company's registry extract. The difference shows at the edges: an ordinary supplier agreement sits inside both rights, while a property sale or a mortgage deed needs signaturrett. When you check a counterparty, read which right the signer actually holds, and remember that the open registry role feed sees neither right, so an honest answer from open data alone is unknown, not nobody.

The whole difference in one picture: signaturrett has no carve-out, while prokura stops at the company's real property.

What is signaturrett?

Signaturrett is the general authority to sign on behalf of a company and bind it in every kind of matter. A holder can sign a lease, a share purchase agreement, a settlement or a property deed, and the company is bound. The right is not attached to a job title: it is granted, and for an aksjeselskap the board decides who holds it within the frame set by the articles of association.

The registered text also states how the right must be exercised. Some companies register a single holder who signs alone; others register combinations, such as two board members jointly, or styreleder together with daglig leder. Those combinations are part of the right itself: a person listed in a joint combination cannot bind the company alone, however senior the title on the business card.

Which people stand behind those combinations in a given company is its own resolution job, and the guide to who can sign for a Norwegian company walks through it end to end.

What is prokura, and where does it stop?

Prokura is a narrower signing authority for the day-to-day operation of the business, regulated by prokuraloven. A prokurist can sign the ordinary run of operational agreements in the company's name. The statute draws one explicit line: a prokurist cannot sell the company's real property, and cannot mortgage it. Everything on the property side of that line needs signaturrett, or a specific authority granted for the transaction.

The limit is what makes prokura practical to hand out. A company can give a trusted operations lead the ability to keep daily business moving without also handing over the power to dispose of its premises. For an enkeltpersonforetak the split is even cleaner: the innehaver personally holds signaturrett, alone and not reassignable, so prokura is the signing authority an ENK can actually delegate to someone else.

Registry data mirrors the split directly. When the only registered signing authority in a company is prokura, the resolved classification comes back as prokura-only: someone can sign in daily operations, and nobody registered can bind the company beyond that statutory limit.

The two rights side by side. Both are Foretaksregisteret data, filed through the same registration channel, and neither is visible in the open Enhetsregisteret role feed.
Dimension	Signaturrett	Prokura
Scope	Binds the company in everything, from daily agreements to property deeds.	Day-to-day operation of the business only.
Real property	Covered: a holder can sign a sale or a mortgage per the registered combination.	Excluded by statute: no selling, no mortgaging the company's real property.
Who typically holds it	Board members, styreleder or daglig leder, per the registered text; for an ENK always the innehaver alone.	Daglig leder or trusted operational staff; the delegable authority for an ENK.
Register source	Filed via Samordnet registermelding in Altinn; visible as text on the extract.	Same channel and same extract; equally invisible to the open role feed.

How are the rights granted, and where do they appear in registry data?

Both rights are registered the same way: the company files a Samordnet registermelding through Altinn, and the resulting text appears on the company's registry extract. That text is the authoritative statement of who holds what and in which combinations, and it stays authoritative until a new filing changes it. A board change does not rewrite it by itself, which is why signing authority has to be re-checked rather than assumed from the current role list.

There is one trap here for integrators. The open Enhetsregisteret role feed has a closed vocabulary of role groups: board roles, daglig leder, innehaver and a few others. It contains no group for signaturrett and none for prokura, because the signing texts are Foretaksregisteret data. An integration built purely on the open role feed therefore cannot see either right, and the honest answer it can give is unknown, never an empty list dressed up as nobody holds signing rights.

Apier's authority endpoint resolves the actual signing picture and reduces it to one classification, and the guide to verifying Norwegian signing authority shows how to build that check into an onboarding or payment flow.

Signaturrett in an aksjeselskap

For an AS the starting point is the board: aksjeloven makes the board the body that acts for the company, so with nothing else registered, binding the company is the board's job. Registered signaturrett is the board's tool for making signing practical, granting the right to named roles or persons so that not every agreement needs the full board around a table.

The grants come in the combinations the register can express: a sole holder, joint combinations such as two board members together, and by-role grants such as styreleder and daglig leder jointly. One person can hold both signaturrett and prokura at once, and daglig leder holds neither automatically: each right exists only if it has been decided and registered. That is the rule that makes checking the register worth the call, because the title tells you the job, and only the text tells you the authority.

Make the first call

The sandbox call returns the signing-authority answer for a test company, simulated data, no key. The TypeScript sample makes the live call: one request that resolves the registered texts into a classification, with the named signaturrett and prokura holders attached.

# Zero-auth sandbox: the signing-authority answer for a company, simulated data.
curl -s https://www.apier.no/api/v1/sandbox/public/company/999999999/authority

// Live: who holds signaturrett and prokura for one company, resolved
// into a single classification with the named holders attached.
const res = await fetch(
  "https://www.apier.no/api/v1/company/999999999/authority",
  {
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.APIER_API_KEY}`,
    },
  },
);

if (!res.ok) {
  // Every non-2xx answers the same structured envelope.
  const { error_code, explanation } = await res.json();
  throw new Error(`${error_code}: ${explanation.summary}`);
}

const { data } = await res.json();
// sole, joint, by_role, prokura_only, no_authority or unknown.
console.log(data.classification, data.summary);
for (const holder of data.signaturrett_holders) {
  console.log("signaturrett:", holder.name, holder.role);
}
for (const holder of data.prokura_holders) {
  console.log("prokura:", holder.name, holder.role);
}

Frequently asked questions

Can a prokurist sign a loan or a mortgage on company property?: The hard statutory line is real property: a prokurist cannot sell the company's real property and cannot mortgage it, so a mortgage deed over the company's premises needs a signaturrett holder or a specific authority granted for that transaction. For other commitments, such as ordinary loan documents, the question is whether they sit inside the day-to-day operation of the business, and that is a judgement the counterparty has to make. When the signature matters, read which right the signer actually holds instead of assuming the title covers it.
Can one person hold both signaturrett and prokura?: Yes, and it is common. The two rights are registered independently, so the same name can appear under both on the company's extract, for example a daglig leder who holds prokura alone plus signaturrett jointly with a board member. Since signaturrett is the general authority to bind the company, it covers in practice everything prokura covers; the narrower right still matters because it can be granted and withdrawn separately, and because the registered combinations for each right can differ.
Is prokura granted to one person alone or to several jointly?: Both forms exist, and the registered text decides. A company can register one prokurist who signs alone, or several who must sign jointly, and the extract states the combination in force. This is why reading the text matters more than spotting the word prokura: a jointly held prokura is not exercised by one person alone. When Apier resolves a company's signing picture, these combinations are part of what reduces to the sole, joint, by-role or prokura-only classification.
How do I check who holds signaturrett or prokura in a company?: Read the company's registry extract, or make one API call: GET /api/v1/company/{org}/authority returns the classification together with the named signaturrett and prokura holders. Note the open-data limit while you build: the open Enhetsregisteret role feed has no role group for either right, because the signing texts are Foretaksregisteret data. An integration built only on the open role feed therefore answers unknown for both rights; it never has grounds to answer that nobody holds them.
Does daglig leder automatically have signaturrett?: No. Neither right follows the job title. For an aksjeselskap the starting point is that the board acts for the company, and signaturrett is something the board decides within the frame of the articles of association and then registers. Many companies do grant daglig leder signaturrett or prokura, and many do not, so the register text is the only reliable answer. Before relying on a managing director's signature for anything binding, check what is actually registered.