On 6 July 2020, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) announced that it will review dividend proposals from insurers under its supervision as usual. In the beginning of April 2020 there was a call to temporarily suspend the distribution of dividends and the buying back of own shares until there would be more … Continue Reading
On 6 July 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a sector letter containing guidelines on sustainability in the context of new rules and regulations. Many new laws and regulations are currently being introduced in the field of sustainability. For example, as of 10 March 2021, the EU … Continue Reading
On 6 July 2020, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) issued a press release supporting the recent recommendation from the European Systemic Risk Board (ERSB) on the restriction of distributions during the COVID-19 pandemic. DNB expects that during these uncertain times investment firms and alternative investment funds will closely monitor their financial buffers. … Continue Reading
The Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) and the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) recently announced that they will be requesting financial institutions to provide information on the transition to alternative interest rate benchmarks. The global transition from Inter Bank Offered Rates to Risk Free Rates will end … Continue Reading
On 25 June 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a position paper on sustainability (the Position Paper). In the Position Paper, the AFM describes what it expects from market parties when it comes to sustainability and how the AFM will be supervising this. In addition, the AFM … Continue Reading
On 17 June 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published its recommendations for the review of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) in the form of a position paper: “Views on the review of the Alternative Investment Fund Directive (AIFMD)”. This follows on the European Commission’s AIFMD … Continue Reading
On 18 June 2020, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) issued a press release on financial risks resulting from the loss of biodiversity. DNB notes that Dutch financial institutions have hundreds of billions of euros in outstanding loans on which they may be exposed to risks as a result of loss of biodiversity. … Continue Reading
On 10 June 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a news item with regard to the impact of the corona crisis on the needs of consumers and the functioning of financial products. According to the AFM, the way in which a financial product works from the customer’s … Continue Reading
On 10 June 2020, a proposal to amend the Financial Supervision Funding Decree 2019 (Besluit bekostiging financieel toezicht 2019) was published for public consultation. This proposal will change the distribution of the supervisory costs of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) among the different supervisory categories. Back in 2019 … Continue Reading
The Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) recently published a news item in which it notes that research has shown that electronic trading platforms are providing payment services without the required authorisation. In the Netherlands there used to be an exception to the licence obligation for payment service providers if the payment services were … Continue Reading
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) recently requested investment firms and tied agents in the Netherlands, as well as Dutch branch offices of foreign investment firms, to complete an online questionnaire on compliance with the Act on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing (Wet ter voorkoming van … Continue Reading
On 19 May 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published recommendations in connection with the current review of the (recast) Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). The AFM notes that these recommendations are part of its further efforts to ensure the orderly functioning of the European financial markets … Continue Reading
As set out in our earlier blog post, the Dutch Senate (Eerste Kamer) adopted the Act implementing the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) (Implementatiewet wijziging vierde anti-witwasrichtlijn, the Act) on 21 April 2020. On 4 May 2020, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) published a new edition of its newsletter for crypto service … Continue Reading
The Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) recently submitted its legislative letter (wetgevingsbrief) for 2020 to the Dutch Minister of Finance (the Minister). This letter is submitted to the Minister annually and sets out the relevant European and national developments relevant to the financial sector and the legislative changes desired by DNB to address bottlenecks in Dutch laws … Continue Reading
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) recently submitted its legislative letter (wetgevingsbrief) for 2020 to the Dutch Minister of Finance (the Minister). This letter is submitted to the Minister annually and sets out the relevant European and national developments relevant to the financial sector and the legislative changes desired … Continue Reading
On 14 April 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) announced that investment funds and investment firms are still not doing enough to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Under the Act on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van … Continue Reading
On 9 April 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) announced that it follows the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) request in its recent public statement (the Statement) to not prioritise supervisory actions where it concerns compliance with their obligation to publish annual and half yearly reports in … Continue Reading
On 6 April 2020, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) published a news item containing an update on the measures taken by DNB in connection to the coronavirus pandemic. DNB starts off by noting that the pandemic is having a significant impact on the economy and in order to minimize the situation, it … Continue Reading
On 3 April 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a news item stating that the 15 investment funds and investment firms that were subject of the AFM’s investigation have improved their processes to reduce integrity risks (such as money laundering and terrorist financing related risks). Since an … Continue Reading
On 1 April 2020, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) published a Q&A and Good Practice document related to the integration of climate-related risk considerations into banks’ risk management. According to DNB, banks can be vulnerable to the physical consequences of changing weather (physical risks) and to the consequences of a transition to … Continue Reading
On 2 April 2020, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) published a news item in which they endorse the statement issued by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) calling on insurers to suspend their dividend payments and share buybacks until more is known about the impact of COVID-19. DNB fully endorses … Continue Reading
On 2 April 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a news item emphasising the statement issued by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) to insurers and intermediaries, urging them to take steps to mitigate the impact of Coronavirus/COVID-19 on consumers. Insurers and intermediaries are asked … Continue Reading
On 27 March 2020, the Dutch Minister of Finance (the Minister) sent a letter to the Dutch Parliament containing answers to questions raised by members of the Dutch Parliament on potential liquidity issues in the financial sector as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The questions in the letter among other things relate to the … Continue Reading
On 26 March 2020, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) published a news item stating that due to the impact of the coronavirus it will be suspending large data requests to financial undertakings until 1 June 2020. The AFM wants to give the financial sector space to fully focus … Continue Reading
