The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (“AFM”) and the Dutch Central Bank (“DCB”) have been given the statutory duty of safeguarding the integrity of the financial markets. For this reason, the AFM and the DCB test the reliability of (candidate)(co-)policymakers within an organization.
The AFM and the DCB shall establish whether the reliability of a person as referred to in Section 4:10(1) of the Act on Financial Supervison (“AFS”) is beyond doubt on the basis of this person’s intentions, acts and antecedents. In establishing a person’s reliability, the AFM and the DCB shall in any event consider the following antecedents:
- criminal antecedents;
- financial antecedents;
- supervision antecedents;
- fiscal antecedents under administrative; and
- other antecedents.
The antecedents listed above are inter alia set out in annex C of the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the AFS (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiële ondernemingen Wft). The AFM has recently published an article (only available in Dutch) which specifically addresses what is meant by “other” antecedents. This article can be found via: meldplicht-betrouwbaarheid-jaarboek-compliance.pdf
For applying for a license under the AFS or for applying for a declaration of no objection with the DCB, a (candidate)(co-)policymakers needs to be tested on reliability before the AFM or the DCB can grant them with a license or a declaration of no-objection. Therefore, we recommend to obtain advice on this topic to assure whether the reliability of the (candidate)(co-)policymakers is beyond doubt.
We can provide you with a detailed advice about this important matter if you or your the (candidate)(co-)policymakers need to be tested on reliability with the AFM and/or DCB.