Business community wants the government to take control in tackling money laundering

The government must take the lead in combating money laundering. This demand is echoed by a broad coalition of banks, brokers, and notaries. They call for the government to appoint a national coordinator, saying the Dutch approach to combating money laundering currently lacks "clear guidance and prioritization."

"Criminals can only be stopped if the government also invests additional resources to scrutinize reports more closely, actually catch the crooks, and pass this information on to the gatekeepers," said business associations VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland, which joined forces with the banking umbrella association NVB, the association of insurers, the notaries' association KNB, the association of trust offices Holland Quaestor and the real estate agents' associations NVM and VBO in this demand ahead of the Tweede Kamer elections.

The problem, according to the organizations, is that they have to deal with conflicting laws and regulations, which they believe affect their role as "gatekeepers" of the financial system. They would like to move to a mutual alert system, such as banks and insurers already have in place to combat fraud. They would also like to be able to share more information with each other. However, this contradicts, for example, privacy protection.

The barriers would now prevent efficient and effective work. "Bona fide entrepreneurs suffer and criminals can go about their business virtually undisturbed by underground bankers," they say. Now even the buyer of a house has to provide the same data to the broker, bank, and notary every time. Banks are also sometimes forced to take tougher action against possible money laundering than is necessary, for example by refusing to provide services to certain customers.

Money laundering regulations have been causing problems for the financial sector for years. ING and ABN AMRO have already had to pay hundreds of millions of euros in fines for failing to take action against money laundering. Other banks are also facing fines. However, regulator De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) is now working on a "more risk-based approach" to combating money laundering. The aim is to prevent overly strict controls from leading to unnecessary rejection or obstruction of customers. However, this does not change the fact that banks still have to incur high costs to screen customers and transactions. The banks themselves believe that the approach could be smarter.