On 25 March 2021, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) started a public consultation of a proposed revision of the policy rule used to determine the amount of nearly all administrative fines imposed by the AFM: the Fine Allocation Policy AFM 2021 (Boetetoemetingsbeleid AFM 2021, the New Policy). The purpose of the New Policy is twofold: (1) it allows the AFM to determine a proportionate fine in each individual case taking into account all the circumstances; and (2) it provides as much transparency as possible in advance about the way in which the amount of a fine is determined.

The AFM believes changes are necessary because its current policy – which dates from 2009 and was last updated in 2015 and published in 2017 – is partly out of date and no longer fully in line with relevant rules and regulations. In the explanatory notes to the New Policy the AFM provides some further context on the proposed changes, but no overview is provided of the differences between the New Policy and the current policy.