A bill was adopted by parliament on 20 December 2011 introducing a suitability test for (daily) policy makers of financial institutions and trust offices in the Netherlands. This bill follows from, inter alia, the findings of the De Wit (the financial system) and Scheltema (downfall of DSB bank) Commissions.
The primary changes to the existing testing framework for (daily) policy makers by the AFM and/or DNB (as set out in the Financial Market Supervision Act and the Trust Offices Supervision Act) are:
- the former expertise test for (daily) policy makers is replaced by a suitability test
- introduction of a suitability test for supervisory directors of financial institutions and trust offices regulated in the Netherlands
- implementation of a set of consultation and (binding) recommendation rules for regulated entities that are supervised by both DNB (prudential supervision) and the AFM (market conduct supervision)
According to the explanatory notes to the bill, the term 'suitable' includes not only the knowledge and experience of (daily) policy makers, but also the skills and professional behaviour of such persons. Whether a person is found suitable by DNB and/or the AFM also depends on the expertise of the (supervisory) board as a whole.
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