On 1 January 2013 a ban on (paying or receiving) commissions (provisieverbod) for complex financial products, such as mortgages, life insurance and funeral insurance, was introduced in the Netherlands. In order to determine whether the ban was complied with, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) conducted an investigation in summer 2014 into agreements and / or cash flows between the providers of complex products and (medium) large advisors and intermediaries. Following the investigation the AFM has concluded that banks, insurers and independent advisors / intermediaries have generally showed compliance with the ban on commission. For the investigation, the AFM drew on a random sample of 53 (medium) large advisers and intermediaries, 9 providers and 4 service providers.

In its report the AFM emphasises that its investigation specifically (and only) focused on compliance with the ban on commission and is not an evaluation of it. An evaluation of the effects of the ban, which has received a fair amount of criticism since its introduction, will be taking place in 2017 by order of the Dutch Ministry of Finance.

View the AFM report on compliance with the commissions ban, 9 July 2015.