DNB: strict supervision of medium-sized and small banks
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB, the Dutch central bank) has set high capital requirements for the 30 or so medium-sized and small banks located in the Netherlands and supervises them just as frequently and as meticulously as each other, regardless of their size. The Netherlands Court of Audit arrived at this conclusion following an audit of bank supervision in the country.
The audit found that DNB exercised strict and intensive supervision in order to implement the lessons learned from the credit crisis. Its national supervision was similar to the European Central Bank’s supervision of the six large banks in the Netherlands. The European Central Bank (ECB) has been supervising all large banks in the eurozone since 2014. The six large banks in the Netherlands are: ABN AMRO, Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, ING, Nederlandse Waterschapsbank, Rabobank and Volksbank. Smaller banks are still supervised by the national supervisor, with the ECB having final responsibility for the supervision. There are about 30 medium-sized and small banks in the Netherlands. They include the medium-sized Van Lanschot Bankiers and Triodos Bank and small banks like ASR Bank.
