OSLO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Norway's Competition Authority (NCA) rejected on Tuesday Norwegian bank DNB's plan to buy online rival Sbanken as the deal would hurt customers in the mutual fund market, the two banks said in a statement.

The decision was in line with the NCA's preliminary findings https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/norways-antitrust-regulator-opposes-dnbs-13-bln-sbanken-takeover-2021-08-26 released in August. More than 90% of Sbanken's shareholders had accepted DNB's offer of 11.1 billion crowns ($1.28 billion).

The decision can be appealed, however, to the Norwegian Competition Tribunal within 15 days. ($1 = 8.7052 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)