On 21 June 2016, the Dutch Minister of Finance published a letter addressed to the Dutch Parliament on the reforms and results of the Dutch financial sector. In his letter, the Minister looks back on the most important measures that have been taken to create a more stable and accommodating financial sector. These measures include, but are not limited to, stricter capital requirements, diversification of providers of financial services and stricter remuneration policies.

The second part of the letter focuses at the status quo, with the important observation that confidence in the financial sector has (still) not fully recovered. The Minister also addresses some important on-going and new initiatives from the government and the regulatory authorities with the aim of further strengthening the financial sector. These initiatives include, but are not limited to:

  • strengthening and completing EU banking union;
  • creating more accessible legislation – the Minister is considering a possible revision of the Act on the Financial Supervision (Wet op het financieel toezicht); and
  • increasing transparency and accountability, including granting powers to the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) and the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (De Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) allowing them to publish more information on certain topics.

View the Dutch Minister of Finance’s letter (Dutch only), 21 June 2016.