Exclusive: Ethics watchdog for Norway's $830 billion wealth fund sees increase in bans on firms

By Joachim Dagenborg and Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) - The ethics watchdog for Norway's $830-billion wealth fund will focus this year on identifying corruption in telecoms, arms and energy companies and expects to recommend that an increasing number of firms across all sectors be barred from investment. By the end of this year, the fund which invests income from Norway's oil and gas production could add the first companies to its blacklist for emitting too much climate changing gas, said the chairman of its independent ethics panel, Johan H. Andresen. The ethics panel will also look into allegations of human rights abuses in Qatar's building sector, Malaysia's electronics goods industry, and textile factories in some Asian countries, Andresen told Reuters.