Insurer Nationale-Nederlanden to enter the online banking market

Insurance company Nationale-Nederlanden wants to target the online banking and payments market with its own accounts, a spokesperson confirmed. This move will see the company compete with the country's biggest banks, such as ABN Amro, Rabobank, and ING.

The consumer bank, which will also be called Nationale-Nederlanden, will be entirely digital. Payments will be able to be completed via an app, the spokesperson said after initial reporting by the Financieele Dagblad.

"Eventually, there will be a debit card; we are looking at the customer's needs," the spokesperson added. Test runs are currently ongoing with a small group of account holders.

"We think there is space for us in the market as an alternative to large banks. We are ambitious," CEO Marcel Zuidam told the newspaper.