The special US Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis invited the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) for a roundtable session at Capitol Hill, which took place on 17 October. Mr Frank Elderson, chair of the NGFS and executive director of the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB), gave an introductory statement. In his statement, Frank Elderson highlighted the current work and the next steps, of both the NGFS and of…

On 25 September 2019, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, AFM) and the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) published their findings and best practices on the transitioning to alternative benchmarks. The transitioning to alternative benchmarks follows from the EU Benchmarks Regulation (BMR). The AFM and DNB require the users of interest rate benchmarks to prepare properly. In April 2019, the AFM and DNB sent out a questionnaire to the…

The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, the AFM) currently allows certain groups of proprietary traders (persons dealing on own account) not to comply with the 20% bonus cap. In 2017, propriety traders faced a situation where they would be subject to the bonus cap with immediate effect, while they were first excluded. With its tolerance policy, the AFM wanted to prevent undesirable side effects in the face of further European rules.…

On 4 September 2019, the Dutch Minister of Finance published a regulation adding a new provision to the Exemption Regulation AFS (Vrijstellingsregeling Wft) containing an exemption from the Dutch licence obligation for Singapore and US market operators that operate trading venues (organised trading facilities and multilateral trading facilities) in the Netherlands (the Regulation). The Regulation stipulates that the exemption will only be available insofar as the following two conditions are met: only derivatives are being traded…

On 28 August 2019, the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) published good practices for non-life insurers (schadeverzekeraars) in relation to the adequate risk control of authorised agents (gevolmachtigd agenten). The good practices set out the regulatory requirements for the use of authorized agents and how DNB expects that these requirements are complied with. The good practices have been created after intensive consultations with the sector and replace the current standards on authorisations (Normenkader…

On 28 August 2019, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten AFM) published a news item addressing the licence obligation for proprietary trading firms (handelaren voor eigen rekening), in particular in case orders are executed on behalf of clients. The AFM indicates in order to determine whether someone is dealing on own account it is important to establish whose accounts are used for transactions and who is legally bound by the transactions.…

On 30 June 2019, the Dutch Minister of Finance and the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security published their joint action plan on the prevention of money laundering via the Dutch financial system and on localizing and prosecution of criminals and their facilitators (the Plan). Combatting anti-money laundering has had a European wide focus for some years already, resulting in the 4th and 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directives. Money laundering has also been an area of…