On 30 May 2016, the Financial Stability Committee (Financieel Stabiliteitscomité) published a report of its meeting on the financial stability of the Dutch financial markets. One of the topics discussed at the meeting concerned the opportunities and risks associated with technological innovation in the Dutch financial sector (FinTech).

With respect to FinTech the Financial Stability Committee has indicated that, among other things:

• FinTech could lead to better services, lower costs, greater transparency on quality and prices and increased efficiency;

• although FinTech is currently still limited in size, rapid growth in the sector has the potential of posing serious risk to financial stability, e.g. by taking over part of the market of established institutions which could – in the short term – result in a decrease of profits, liquidity and solvability of such institutions; and

• the risks that FinTech poses to financial stability should not outweigh the risks that opportunities for further development will be missed. Therefore, for the purpose of removing bottlenecks the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, AFM) and the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) need to adopt an open attitude towards FinTech and cooperate with legislators. The AFM and DNB will examine the possibilities for differentiated licensing to facilitate FinTech and will publish a joint consultation paper in this respect shortly.

Other topics which were discussed during the meeting include Brexit, homogeneity in the financial markets and the continuing low interest rates.

The Financial Stability Committee’s task is to identify risks to financial stability in the Netherlands, and to make recommendations with respect to these risks. The committee comprises representatives of DNB, the AFM and the Dutch Ministry of Finance.

View a report of the Financial Stability Committee’s meeting (Dutch only), 23 May 2016.