Dutch Cabinet pays out €900 million to expropriated SNS Reaal investors

The Cabinet paid around 900 million euros to investors who held certain bonds and had lent money to SNS Reaal and SNS Bank. The amount owed to the creditors had been expropriated when the government nationalized SNS Reaal in 2013, but the Supreme Court ruled last year that the Cabinet had to pay them over 700 million euros in compensation, and 200 million euros in interest.

The payout process has now been completed, the caretaker Cabinet said on Thursday. Finance Minister Steven van Weyenberg wrote about the process in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch Parliament. He claimed that immediately after the court ruling, hotlines and reporting points were opened where investors could file a compensation claim.

Around 93 percent of the fees to be paid have been transferred. A special fund will be set up to hold the remaining amount allocated for claims that have yet to be filed. People have another 20 years to apply for the money owed to them, Van Weyenberg added.

The Supreme Court decision ended a lengthy judicial process surrounding eventual compensation for expropriated investors. Unlike the bonds and loan holders, thousands of victimized investors did not receive any compensation.

The Investors' Association, VEB, is still working on a procedure to ensure compensation for the regular investors in SNS Reaal. The investment association thinks that the successors of SNS Reaal, the SRH, and the Volksbank are responsible and want compensation from them.

The investors' association also spoke to former directors of SNS Reaal and the accounting agency KPMG. A spokesperson for the VEB says that this procedure is still ongoing.

The Ministry of Finance nationalized SNS Reaal in 2013 to prevent the financial group from going bankrupt. The rescued parts of the company were placed in an insurance branch and a banking branch.

The first was sold to the Chinese company Anbang and was later sold on to Athora and NN. The banking branch is now called the Volksbank and is the parent company of brands like SNS, ASN Bank, Regio Bank, and mortgage lender BLG Wonen.