On 9 June 2016, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) and the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) announced that they will collaborate with the aim of broadening the opportunities for innovative initiatives in the financial markets.

The AFM and DNB have invited market parties to respond to proposals for a more accessible regulatory regime for innovative financial services. For this purpose, the Dutch regulators published a discussion paper. In the discussion paper, the AFM and DNB request market parties to consider a number of possibilities for changing the supervisory regime which may lead to a positive contribution to the competitiveness and efficiency of the financial sector.

In addition, the AFM and DNB launched the ‘InnovationHub’, which can be accessed on both their websites. The InnovationHub aims to support new and existing market parties with questions on the rules, regulations and policies relating to innovative concepts or ideas. It is intended that in the second half of 2016 the InnovationHub will become the central point for all policy issues related to financial innovation, such as consultations, policy proposals, Q&As and other information.

View the AFM’s news item and the DNB’s news item (Dutch only), 9 June 2016.

View the discussion paper (Dutch only), 9 June 2016.