ABN Amro apologises for its role in slavery via Mees and Hope banks

DutchNews, April 13, 2022

Hope & Co provided a mortgage for this Suriname coffee plantation.
Drawing: Rijksmuseum collection

ABN Amro bank has issued a formal apology for its role in slavery which, the bank says, played a major role in the banking group’s history. 

The International Institute for Social History has looked at the role of two 18th century banks – Hope & Co and R. Mees & Zoonen – both of which have been swallowed up in the ABN Amro group. 

Both companies were involved in slave trading, in plantations and in the trade of goods made by enslaved peoples, the researchers said. 

In particular, the researchers found that between 25% and 33% of Hope & Co’s turnover derived from slavery. At least 50 plantations were financed by Hope & Co loans and slaves were used as security. 

‘The lists include estimates of how much each person was worth,’ IISG researcher Pepijn Brandon said. ‘Male slaves with specific skills were given a very high value in the accounts, but others were listed as not having any value.’ 

Mees & Zoonen played a more minor role but the researchers estimate around half of the insurance policies for seafarers which it brokered were related to slavery. ‘Decisions made in offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam directly impacted the lives of thousands of enslaved persons,’ Brandon said. 

Chief executive Robert Swaak said in a reaction to the research that ABN Amro ‘has a proud history going back more than 300 years’. 

‘However, we must also recognise that it has a darker side as well,’ he said. ‘ABN Amro as it exists now cannot undo that period of its history. We are aware that, even though slavery has been abolished, the past injustices have persisted. ABN Amro apologises for the past actions and activities of these predecessors and for the pain and suffering that they caused.’ 

Read the report (in English) 

The bank said that it has since been talking to representatives of the communities of descendants of slaves to discuss the research findings and will work to ensure concrete measures to help improve the structural social disadvantages facing the descendants of enslaved persons. 

The bank is the first private company in the Netherlands to formally apologise for its role in the slave trade. 

Earlier this year, research carried out on behalf of the Dutch central bank revealed that part of its start-up capital came from business owners with direct interests in plantation slavery in the Atlantic region, for example in Suriname. 

The bank has not apologized for its past but plans to make an ‘appropriate gesture of lasting value to those affected and Dutch society at large.’ 

‘Our historical links to slavery are a constant reminder that we must never cease to contribute to a society in which every person counts and in which no one is excluded,’ director Klaas Knot said at the time.

New report highlights Dutch central bank’s links to slavers and the slave trade

DutchNews, February 9, 2022 

The Dutch central bank at the time of the slave trade. Photo: A Bakker via
 Wikimedid Commons 

Researchers at Leiden University have published a major report into the involvement of the Dutch central bank and its directors in slavery, highlighting the bank’s links to slave traders and their financial transactions. 

The bank commissioned the research in an effort to find a ‘more objective understanding of DNB’s links to slavery’ which the board said had been triggered by the growing historical awareness of the subject and the ongoing fight against racism in society. 

The research showed that the bank was involved in slavery in three ways. Part of its start-up capital came from business owners with direct interests in plantation slavery in the Atlantic region, for example in Suriname. Of the 16 initial major capital providers, 11 have now been linked to slavery. 

As an institution, the bank was indirectly involved in Dutch colonial slavery and slavery in non-Dutch areas, such as British Guiana, by supporting the Ministry of Colonies in its day-to-day payment transfers. It also provided services to trading houses involved in slavery. 

In addition, several prominent DNB officials were personally involved in colonial slavery with direct links with slavery-related businesses and the management of plantations. Only one or two were involved in organisations working to abolish slavery, the researchers found. 

Read the report (English) 

‘The facts that emerged from the study and the deeply racist beliefs that underlie them affect us deeply,’ bank president Klaas Knot said. ‘While we cannot undo the suffering that has been caused, we can, as DNB, try to contribute to healing by making this history visible, and by acknowledging the facts and the suffering they have caused.

’ The bank is also planning to talk to both staff and representatives of civil society organisations, and is setting up an external focus group headed by Freek Ossel, who currently chairs the National Transatlantic Museum of Slavery.

‘We wish to find an appropriate manner to make a gesture of lasting value to those affected and Dutch society at large,’ Knot said. ‘Our historical links to slavery are a constant reminder that we must never cease to contribute to a society in which every person counts and in which no one is excluded.’

ABN Amro to pay €480m to settle money laundering investigation out of court

DutchNews, April 19, 2021 

Photo: DutchNews.nl

ABN Amro has agreed to pay €480m in an out of court settlement for violating Dutch anti-money laundering and counter terrorism funding rules, the public prosecution department said on Monday. 

The bank had broken the law for ‘a number of years and on a structural basis’, the department said. In addition, three former members of the bank’s board of directors have been identified as suspects who were effectively responsible for breaking the law. 

The criminal investigation revealed that over a number of years, ABN Amro fell seriously short of compliance with the law, the department said. In total, 56% of the bank’s shares are still in government hands following its nationalisation in 2008. 

In one case highlighted by the prosecution department, an ABN Amro client who had been allocated the lowest risk classification, opened a total of 192 bank accounts with ABN Amro for 49 of their companies over a four year period. 

Another client, also with a low risk classification, was addicted to gambling and was able to transfer money from his employer to his own bank account – a total of €4.3m over a nine month period – to fund his habit. 

In other cases highlighted by the prosecutor, the bank failed to respond when clients were involved in a widely reported corruption case and failed to deal adequately with a client depositing a large quantity of cash in €500 notes. 

Suspects 

Three former directors of the bank have now been identified as suspects but this does not necessarily mean they face prosecution, the department said. ‘Once that investigation is finalised, a decision will be taken as to whether there is sufficient evidence and as to the way in which the investigation into these persons should be concluded,’ the department said.

 According to the Financieele Dagblad the three are former chief executive Gerrit Zalm plus his former colleagues Joop Wijn and Chris Vogelzang. Vogelzang has now stepped down as as chief executive of Denmark’s Danske Bank, and Zalm has resigned from his supervisory role. 

Conclusion 

The fine is an ‘appropriate and effective conclusion to the criminal case,’ the public prosecutor said. ‘As a state-owned systemic bank, ABN Amro… shares responsibility for the reliability of our financial system and can and should make an important contribution to its integrity.’ 

ABN Amro chief executive Robert Swaak said in a statement that in the past the bank had been ‘insufficiently successful’ in properly fulfilling its role as gatekeeper. ‘This is unacceptable and we take full responsibility for this,’ he said. 

Last month, the Financieele Dagblad reported that ABN Amro did not have proper checks on potential fraud and money laundering in place until well into 2019. 

This is around a year after ING reached a €755m out of courtsettlement with the public prosecution department over its regulatory failures, which should have alerted executives to the risks, the paper said.

Former ING chief should face charges over bank’s money laundering scandal: court

DutchNews, December 9, 2020 

Photo: ING.com

Former ING chief executive Ralph Hamers should face charges personally for his role in the money laundering scandal which led the financial services group to reach a €775m out of court settlement in 2018, appeal court judges in The Hague said on Wednesday. 

The case has been brought by campaign group Sobi, which says Hamers should face criminal charges. ‘The facts are serious, no settlement was reached with the management and he has never accepted public responsibility for his actions,’ campaigner Pieter Lakeman said. 

‘Managers who consciously make mistakes should not be able to buy themselves free by agreeing to very high fines while shareholders pick up the bill. It is of great importance that Hamers faces prosecution.’ 

The court said in its ruling that while it supported the public prosecution’s decision to look for a settlement, as CEO, Hammers was authorised and required to take measures to prevent criminal behaviour. ‘However, not only did he fail to do this and thereby promote this behaviour, but he also consciously accepted the risk that it would continue,’ the court said. 

ING said in a reaction it regretted the court decision. ‘We … regret the decision to order the prosecution of our former CEO, which goes against the assessment of the public prosecutors that, based on the investigation, there are no grounds for a case against ING employees or former employees,’ ING said in a statement. 

Hamers is now chief executive of Swiss bank UBS which, according to Reuters, says it is confident he will be able to remain in the job. 

The public prosecution department reached a €775m out of court settlement with ING for failing to properly monitor money transfers for potential money laundering in September 2018.

The department said between 2010 and 2016, the bank’s clients were effectively able to launder hundreds of millions of euros because ING was not doing its job properly. Banks are required by law to report suspicious transactions.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once),Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

ING embroiled in Russian money laundering network: Investico

DutchNews, September 21, 2020 

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

An ING subsidiary in Poland has for years helped its clients to move large amounts of money out of Russia, the FD, Trouw and investigative journalism platform Investico said on Monday. 

The claim is based on leaked documents from the American finance ministry’s fraud investigation department Fincen, which details thousands of suspect transactions involving some of the world’s biggest banks. 

Two Dutch securities traders – Tristane Capital and Schildershoven Finance – were said to be ‘key players’ in the shift of billions of euros out of Russia and banked with ING Bank Slaski, the Polish arm of ING, Investico said. 

The two traders moved from Deutsche Bank to ING Bank Slaski in 2013, opening accounts which they used for Russian share trading. According to the US authorities, in 2014 and 2015 alone, ING’s Polish arm facilitated the movement of €675m in payments to companies which, the FD says, were part of the money-laundering network. 

Tristane Capital and Schildershoven Finance now have new owners and told Investico they know nothing of the allegations. Former owners and shareholders have declined to comment in detail, as has ING, Investico said. In 2018, ING reached an out of court settlement with the Dutch authorities totalling €775m because of its lax approach to money laundering.’ 

Read the Investico report (English)

Public prosecutor under pressure not to settle ABN Amro money laundering case

DutchNews, August 7, 2020 

Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district. Photo: DutchNews.nl 

The public prosecution department is coming under considerable pressure to prosecute ABN Amro staff over money laundering failings, rather than reach an out of court settlement, the Financieele Dagblad said on Friday. 

Pressure is coming from both politicians and society at large, and is forcing department officials to take difficult decisions, the paper said. In particular, the FD said, personal responsibility is hard to prove and the department is rarely successful in this sort of case, making a settlement more appealing. 

The record €775m out of court settlement reached with ING for similar failings was widely criticised because bankers were perceived to have been let off. There was similar criticism after the Rabobank Libor interest rate scandal. 

The public prosecution department said last September it had launched a criminal investigation into possible money laundering at ABN Amro. 

‘If there is a settlement involving a few hundred million euros and no individual bankers face charges, the department will have some explaining to do do parliament,’ Labour MP Henk Nijboer told the paper.

Dutch central bank to investigate historical links with slavery

DutchNews, July 10, 2020

The monument to slavery in Amsterdam’s Oosterpark. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Dutch central bank DNB is authorising an independent investigation into the bank’s historical links with slavery, a spokesperson for the bank confirmed to news platform NU.nl. 

The announcement comes in the wake of an article in Dutch weekly VN on banks and their past associations with slavery. This was based in part on a list of loans made to plantations by banks, including DNB, dating from before 1863, when slavery was abolished. 

According to the article, three directors of the DNB were involved in drawing up a compensation package offered by the Dutch government to former slave owners – some 300 guilders per freed slave, or €7,000 in today’s money. 

‘We are aware of the current discussion about the Dutch past with regards to slavery and the investigation at the Bank of England into its connection with the slave trade, and that is why we have decided to conduct our own investigation,’ a DNB spokesman told NU.nl. 

The investigation will focus on the first years of the bank’s existence and the role of one of its financers, Johanna Borski, part of whose immense fortune was invested in plantations in Surinam and elsewhere in the Caribbean, the DNB said. 

Once the investigation has been concluded the bank will decide on possible steps. The Bank of England issued an formal apology following the results of its investigation. 

Monument 

In a further attempt at recognising the Dutch involvement in the slave trade, Utrecht local council has decided to erect a monument to commemorate victims of slavery. There are already monuments to the abolition of slavery in Rotterdam,The Hague and Amsterdam. The Utrecht tribute is scheduled to be revealed during the celebration of Keti Koto on July 1 2023, the year that marks the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. 

The monument ‘must be a visible recognition of the terrible harm that slavery did for centuries and which has left its mark until this day,’ the council said. Its unveiling will be part of a broader event featuring debate, exhibitions and theatre. 

Prime minister Rutte, who recently rejected a formal apology for the Dutch link with slavery requested by coalition parties D66 and ChristenUnie, has said he will look into the option of declaring 2023 the year to remember it.

Ministers, unions and employers finally agree on new pension system

DutchNews, June 13, 2020 

Photo: DutchNews.nl 

Government officials, unions and employers have finally reached a definitive agreement about a new pension system which, according to social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees will be ‘more robust, more personal’ and will ‘better meet the needs of today’s labour market’. 

The new system will be implemented in 2026, if passed in parliament, but companies and funds can begin making the switch in 2022. 

The agreement means that most pension funds will not have to cut pensions next year after all, because of the change-over period and because of the ‘very special circumstances’ due to the coronavirus crisis, Koolmees said. 

The main strands in the new agreement were decided last year and the government has not yet published the results of the latest round of talks. 

However, in a nutshell, in the new system, the size of pensions will not be based on coverage ratios and official interest rates, but will depend on stock exchange developments. 

‘If the economy is going well, pensions will go up more quickly. If things go badly, then we will make cuts,’ Koolmees said. 

Reforms 

The decision to reform the Dutch system, currently viewed as one of the best in the world, was first taken some 10 years ago. At the time the decision was made because the aging population is putting more pressure on the current pension system and pension funds are having to pay out to more people for longer. 

The rise in self-employment is also having an impact, with fewer people paying into company and sector-wide schemes. 

The Dutch pension system is currently based on three pillars – the state pension AOW, compulsory corporate pension schemes – either sector-wide or company based – and individual or private pension schemes. 

Main points 

In the new system, the state pension age will rise less quickly than originally planned, and there will be an early retirement option, aimed at people doing hard physical work. 

Secondly, the reforms aim to spread the burden of paying for pensions more fairly across the generations. Corporate pensions will no longer be on based average (wage related) contributions but on everyone paying the same. 

The under 40s will profit most from the decision to scrap average contributions and weaken the link between life expectancy and the state pension age – because they will have the most time to build up a full pension and their retirement date will be slightly earlier. 

Compensation 

The over-40s who may be disadvantaged by this because less money goes into their existing funds, will get ‘adequate compensation’, the negotiators have agreed. Details have not yet been made public. 

However, according to the Financieele Dagblad, this means that two pension schemes will effectively operate alongside each other and costs will therefore go up. 

The unions will now discuss the agreements with their members and Koolmees hopes the new strategy can be put to parliament before the summer break, the FD said. 

‘It is a lot of information to go through with lots of technical calculations,’ the minister said.

Dutch to introduce new tax to cut evasion via dividend payments

DutchNews, May 29, 2020

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The finance ministry has decided to impose a withholding tax on multinationals which are sending more dividends than thought to tax havens, junior tax minster Hans Vijlbrief said on Friday. 

The tax will be introduced in 2024 and follows new research by the Dutch central bank which indicates €37bn in interest, royalties and dividends flowed out of the Netherlands to tax havens in 2018. Earlier estimates put the figure at €22bn.

‘This extra tax at source is yet another step towards tackling tax evasion,’ Vijlbrief said. ‘Money flows which move via or from the Netherlands to another country where they are not taxed soon will be.’ 

The Netherlands was already planning to bring in a withholding tax on royalties and interest next year. If MPs vote in favour, a 21.7% tax on dividends will be introduced three years after that. 

The taxes would affect money flows to the 24 countries on the EU blacklist, including Panama and the Seychelles, as well as countries in which taxes on corporate profits are below 9%. 

Some 10,000 shell, or letter-box, companies are based in the Netherlands and are primarily used to shift corporate earnings and obscure ownership.

Almost one in 10 ABN Amro staffers are working on financial crime

DutchNews, February 12, 2020 

ABN Amro’s HG is in Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district. Photo: DutchNews.nl 

ABN Amro has more than 2,000 people working full-time on tracing fraud, money laundering and other financial crime, chief executive Kees van Dijkhuizen said at the presentation of the bank’s annual results on Wednesday. 

The total, around 9% of the workforce, is twice the number of financial crime investigators employed by the bank six months ago. Checking on compliance was stepped up last August and Van Dijkhuizen expects the programme to be completed in 2022.

Last August it emerged that the Dutch central bank had ordered ABN Amro to look at all five million retail customers and in September, the public prosecution office said it was launching a criminal investigation into the bank. 

The investigation is being carried under Dutch laws on money laundering and the financing of terrorism known as Wwft.  ABN Amro is suspected of falling to report suspicious transactions over a longer period, as required to do so by law. 

ABN Amro booked net profit of €2bn last year, 13% down on 2018 and well below expectations. Low interest rates and bad loans outside the Netherlands were largely behind the downturn.

Van Oord involved in Luanda building plan that involved human rights abuses: Trouw

DutchNews, January 20, 2020

Luanda is a mix of new and old. Photo: Depositphotos.com

Dutch dredging group Van Oord may have been involved in human rights abuses and corruption in Angola in connection with the development of an urban development project near the capital Luanda in 2013, Trouw reported on Monday. 

The paper says its own research on the ground and documents leaked to the international investigative journalists’ group ICIJ suggest that some 3,000 families were driven from their homes to make way for the development. 

ING and Atradis, the Dutch government’s credit insurance agency, were also involved with the project, Trouw says. ING lent the equivalent of €360m to the Angolan state and Atradis acted as guarantor. 

Van Oord and ING told Trouw in a reaction that they would now focus on compensating the locals who have been made homeless and that they were completely unaware people had been forcibly moved. 

Trouw says Van Oord worked on the project together with Isabel dos Santos, daughter of the former president of Angola. According to the ICIJ, she has become the richest woman in Africa by exploiting family ties, shell companies and being involved in unscrupulous deals. 

Legal experts told the paper that Dutch companies are often lax in the research they do before getting involved with controversial partners such as Isabel dos Santos, who had been the subject of rumours about possible corruption for years.

Related Article:

Angola vows to bring back billionaire dos Santos over graft claims

Google to stop using ‘double Irish, Dutch sandwich’ tax dodge: Reuters

DutchNews, January 2, 2020

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Google parent Alphabet is to stop using an intellectual property licensing loophole, known as the ‘Double Irish, Dutch sandwich’, which allowed it to cut its global tax bill, Reuters reports. 

The strategy involves companies moving money from an Irish subsidiary to a Dutch holding company and then back to an Irish holding company located in Bermuda with licensing rights to Google intellectual property. 

Because Bermuda has no corporate income tax it was lucrative for Google to report income there, effectively delaying tax payment on international earnings to the US for years while paying a lower tax rate in Europe. 

After pressure from the EU and the US Ireland closed the loopholes in 2014 and companies were given until 2020 to comply with new tax regulations. 

Dutch filings at the Chamber of Commerce and seen by Reuters showed that in 2018 Google moved €21.8bn through its Dutch holding company to Bermuda, up from €19.9bn in 2017. 

Reuters said the filing did not give a definite end date but that Google management expected the termination to take place ‘as of 31 December 2019 or during 2020′. 

The scheme was in place for over a decade and allowed the tech giant to cut its tax bill by hundreds of billions of euros, the Guardian estimates. 

The Netherlands does not currently tax royalties, but is planning to change this as part of a package of measures to crack down on tax evasion in 2021. 

Some 10,000 shell, or letter-box, companies are based in the Netherlands and are primarily used to shift corporate earnings and obscure ownership. Google has used its Dutch affiliate to move money since 2004.

Aid group calls on pension funds to ditch dubious arms investments

DutchNews, November 28, 2019

Photo: zeferli@gmail.com via Depositphotos.com

Nine of the biggest Dutch pension funds are investing in companies which supply weapons to regimes that violate human rights, according to research by Dutch aid group Pax

Pax says the funds invest more than €1bn in dubious weapons manufacturers, with civil service giant ABP plus health fund PFZW and engineering fund PME accounting for €927m of the total. 

The findings come from a new study by the Fair Pension Guide. 

‘Some of most Dutch people’s retirement money is invested in arms companies that, for instance, keep Saudi Arabia’s jet fighters in the air,’ PAX spokesman Cor Oudes said in a statement. ‘These planes drop bombs that kill and maim civilians in Yemen.’ 

The study looks at the largest companies supplying weapons to around 50 countries either currently involved in an armed conflict or which violate human rights. 

Aircraft engines 

Of the 14 companies supplying weapons to countries with poor human rights records, United Technologies Corporation and General Electric have the most Dutch pension fund investment. 

Both companies provide and maintain aircraft engines for the air forces of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Pax says. 

The organisation says pension funds should develop good arms trade policies and urges funds to encourage these arms manufacturers to stop selling arms to dubious regimes. 

‘If the manufacturers fail to take action, pension funds should exclude these companies from their investments,’ Pax said. 

Last year, civil service pension fund ABP, one of the biggest pension funds in world, said it is phasing out all investments in tobacco and nuclear weapons.

Dutch state sells Saudi bank stake, acquired during ABN Amro nationalisation

DutchNews, November 21, 2019 

Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district. Photo: DutchNews.nl

The Dutch state has sold its stake in Saudi bank SABB for €523m, finance minister Wopke Hoekstra has told MPs. 

The shares in SABB were acquired indirectly when the government stepped in to nationalise ABN Amro and Fortis following the abortive takeover by a consortium lead by Royal Bank of Scotland in 2008. 

Excluding costs and settlements, the deal will generate €411m for the treasury, the minister said. 

The 75 million shares were told earlier this week, ‘ending the odd situation in wihch the Dutch state had a shareholding in a Saudi bank,’ Hoekstra said. The name of the buyer has not been made public.

Three million ABN Amro credit card holders face new ID checks

DutchNews, October 18, 2019

Three million people with an ICS credit card will have to go through a new identity check as part of ABN Amro’s efforts to get compliance with anti-money laundering rules up to scratch. 

International Card Services, which is part of ABN Amro, is asking all clients to reconfirm their identities and while an online procedure is being prepared, this currently has to be done in person, the Volkskrant said on Friday. 

ICS is contacting clients by mail and letter and is setting up mobile bases to make the checks as easy as possible. The entire process is expected to take several years to complete. 

ABN Amro said in August at the presentation of its half-yearly figures that it had been ordered by the central bank to look again at all its retail clients. 

And last month the Dutch public prosecution department launched a criminal investigation into possible money laundering at ABN Amro. The probe follows a report made by the Dutch central bank and ABN Amro is suspected of falling to report suspicious transactions over a longer period. 

Earlier this year ING was fined €775m for being lax in its approach to money laundering.

Related Article:

ABN Amro under investigation for not acting on potential money laundering

ABN Amro under investigation for not acting on potential money laundering

DutchNews, September 26, 2019 

The Dutch public prosecution department has launched a criminal investigation into possible money laundering at ABN Amro, the bank said in a short statement on Thursday. 

The bank said it had been told about the investigation on Wednesday and that it would cooperate fully. The investigation is being carried under Dutch laws on money laundering and the financing of terrorism known as Wwft. 

According to news agency Bloomberg, the probe follows a report made by the Dutch central bank and ABN Amro is suspected of falling to report suspicious transactions over a longer period. 

Earlier this year ING was fined €775m for failing to comply properly with the act. ABN Amro said in August at the presentation of its half-yearly figures that it had been ordered by the central bank to look again at all its retail clients. 

The Dutch state owns 56% of ABN Amro and finance minister Wopke Hoekstra has asked the bank to explain why he had not been informed earlier about the investigation, the Financieele Dagblad reported.

Big Dutch banks sign up to UN charter for sustainable banking

DutchNews, September 23, 2019

Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district. Photo: DutchNews.nl

All the big Dutch banks have signed up to a United Nations charter for sustainable banking which was launched in New York at the weekend. 

In total, banks with more than $47tn in assets, or a third of the global industry, signed up to the charter which, the UN says, provides a ‘massive boost for climate action and the shift from “brown to green” models of economic growth’. 

ING’s Ralph Hamers, Kees van Dijkhuizen of ABN Amro and Peter Blom from Triodos were at the ceremony which took place on Sunday. Rabobank and Volkskbank (SNS. ASN and RegioBank) are also signatories. 

Dijkhuizen told broadcaster NOS that ABN Amro will phase out its loans to oil and gas companies and plans to invest only in sustainable energy. ‘It is too early to say when that will be, but it will be well before 2050,’ Dijkhuizen said.

Government may act to give pension funds more leeway ahead of reforms

DutchNews, September 6, 2019 

Freelancer fees are not going up. Photo: Depositphotos.com

The government is to ‘look seriously’ at changing the current rules for corporate pension funds in an effort to head off payout cuts at the two biggest Dutch funds. 

Civil service pension ABP and the health service fund PFZW are both likely to have to cut pensions because their reserves have dropped below the legal level, due to falling interest rates. The two big engineering funds may also have to make cuts. 

Social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees told MPs he first wants to discuss the problems with pension funds and to study the financial consequences of reducing payouts. 

The cuts will come into effect next year unless the government takes action. 

Earlier this year, unions and employers agreed measures to overhaul the Dutch pension fund which would reduce the pressure on funds to keep their assets topped up. 

That new system is due to come into effect in 2022, meaning the funds have two years to bridge before they face more relaxed financial requirements.

Labour party does u-turn, says student grants should be brought back

DutchNews, September 3, 2019

Delft University graduates will be in demand. Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Dutch Labour party has done a u-turn and is now calling for the return of student grants, which were abolished under a Labour minister in 2015. 

Party leader Lodewijk Asscher told Radio 1 news on Tuesday that youngsters are facing many uncertainties at present and that the reintroduction of a basic grant would give them more security. 

Since 2015, students have had to borrow to fund their degree courses, and run up an average debt of around €21,000 by the time they graduate. ‘We can now see that the debt is proving a problem for a large group,’ Asscher said. 

The change of position by the Labour party now means there is majority support for the return of grants in parliament. Two of the four coalition parties – the CDA and ChristenUnie – also back a return to grants. 

The end of student grants was finally pushed through parliament in 2015 with the support of Liberal democratic party D66 and the left-wing greens of GroenLinks. In May, Groenlinks also changed its position and called for the return of the grant system. 

Student loans are now being looked at by banks when assessing mortgage requests, something which ministers said in 2015 would not be the case. 

Education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven said in a reaction she has asked for the student loan system to be reexamined and is not opposed to reforms if it transpires that some students are being disadvantaged. 

Student groups have welcomed the rethink.

Rabobank ditches football clubs as clients because of corruption risk

DutchNews, August 20, 2019

Rabobank’s headquarters in Utrecht. Photo: Depositphotos.com

Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank has decided not to take on any more professional football clubs as clients because of the risk of ‘money laundering, corruption, fraud and other issues’, the NRC said on Tuesday. 

The paper has seen an internal memo to staff which states ‘these clients would appear to present unacceptable risks’. As well on the ban on clubs as clients, bank staff have also been told they must not join club boards or take on any supervisory roles ‘to avoid a conflict of interest’. 

Rabobank, the paper points out, is the bank for 80% of country’s professional clubs and also sponsors several football clubs through its regional offices. 

For example, Telstar’s stadium is named the Rabobank IJmond Stadion, while the bank sponsors ADO Den Haag’s youth teams and VVV and RKC have Rabobank business lounges for supporters. 

The bank declined to comment on the claim but did say it would be ‘very reticent’ to take on new clubs. That, the spokesman said, stemmed from 2017 report by the Dutch central bank which warned about the increased risk of corruption in football. 

The NRC said the bank has already tried to ditch a couple of clubs as clients because it did not want to be associated with their owners. For example, the bank wanted FC Den Bosch to get a new bank when it was about to be taken over by Georgian oligarch Kakhi Jordania.  The deal was squashed by the Dutch FA. 

Rabobank is also blocking a potential investment in Roda JC by Mexican property tycoon Mauricio de la Vega, the NRC said. In 2012, 

Rabobank stopped sponsoring professional cycling teams because of the continuing doping scandals.

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