Queen Máxima concerned about young people using 'buy now, pay later' providers

Queen Máxima is concerned about the ease with which young people can buy on credit. "I am very concerned about the many instant purchase offers that young people get in the Netherlands," the monarch said in an interview with AD.

"I heard from a girl that one provider made it very attractive to buy beautiful mascara that she can pay back in small parts. As multiple purchases are often made in this way, people lose track and end up in the red. I don't want people to get a loan if they buy too much, so they get into debt. That is perhaps happening too often now," Máxima told the newspaper.

“In the Netherlands, I work with the National Coalition for Financial Health. We see that many people have problematic debts. In that situation, you are only concerned with that, not with your work or your family. That has a lot to do with your mental health, which is another area of ​​my work,” she explained.

The Queen was in Colombia this week for her work for the United Nations. She is concerned with so-called financial inclusion, ensuring that as many people as possible in the world have access to a current account with which they can save, pay and insure themselves. Máxima: "It's great that I get the opportunity to change people's lives. That's good for the world: in many countries I've been to, we really see that poverty has been reduced and that the situation has improved."

The Queen was in Colombia this week as part of her work for the United Nations. She is committed to what is known as financial inclusion, i.e. ensuring that as many people in the world as possible have access to a current account with which they can save, pay and insure themselves. "It's great that I get the chance to change people's lives. It's good for the world: in many of the countries I've been to, poverty has really decreased and the situation has improved," the queen stated.

She points to figures that show that efforts to give people access to current and savings accounts are paying off. "We expect that this year, an independent study commissioned by the World Bank will show that over 80 percent of the world's population has access to financial services," Queen Máxima said. "When I started 15 years ago, this figure was 40 percent. Now that we have better access to financial services, we can talk about what we want to achieve. And that is that people are financially healthy, here in Colombia, but also in the Netherlands."