Dutch Deposit Guarantee

The Dutch Deposit Guarantee automatically protects the money of all individuals and almost all firms and other organisations from 1 cent up to €100,000. You do not have to take any action yourself.

The money in your bank accounts is protected from 1 cent up to a maximum of €100,000 per person or company, per bank.

There are four important rules to remember about this limit.

Rule 1 – The protection applies per person or company, not per bank account.

If you have several accounts in one bank, you must add up the money in these accounts. The maximum protection of €100,000 applies to the total amount that you have with the bank.

Rule 2 – For joint accounts, the coverage limit applies to each account holder separately.

For example, if you and your partner have a joint account, you are both protected by the Deposit Guarantee up to €100,000. Together, you are therefore protected up to a maximum of €200,000.

Rule 3 - The protection applies per bank.

You may have accounts with several banks. You are then protected at every bank participating in the Dutch Deposit Guarantee up to the limit of €100,000 per person per bank. Always check that each bank has its own licence and is not a different brand name from the same bank.

Rule 4 - In the event of a temporarily high deposit due to the purchase or sale of your house, you may be eligible for additional protection.

The Dutch Deposit Guarantee provides three months of additional protection for a temporarily high deposit that is related to the fulfilment of a sale or purchase agreement – i.e. the purchase or sale – of an owner-occupied home. The additional protection is linked to the amount of the sale or purchase agreement and is limited to €500,000 per person per bank.

On our page about how much protection you get from the Dutch Deposit Guarantee, you will find calculation examples that may help you determine your coverage.

If a bank account is in the name of a minor, the protection by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee applies to the child and not to the parents or representatives. The minor is the account holder who is protected.

Thus, the amount in the child's account is not added to the balance of the parents or representatives.

Parents or representatives can claim compensation on behalf of the child if a bank goes bankrupt.

Joint accounts are also covered by the protection from 1 cent up to €100,000 per person. Suppose, for example, that you and your partner jointly hold an account, and you have no other accounts. Then your maximum protection is €200,000.

The Dutch Deposit Guarantee provides three months of additional protection for a temporarily high deposit that is related to the fulfilment of a sale or purchase agreement – i.e. the purchase or sale – of an owner-occupied home.

The additional protection is linked to the amount of the sale or purchase agreement and is additionally limited to €500,000 per person per bank.

The total guaranteed amount can never exceed the total balance held at a bank and the additional protection cannot exceed the sale or purchase price of your own home.

A temporarily high deposit associated with the purchase or sale of your own home is not administered separately by banks. Has your bank gone bankrupt? In order to claim the additional compensation, you must therefore inform DNB yourself. We will then provide more information on how to activate the protection for a temporarily high deposit if a particular deposit guarantee is invoked.

The money of the following types of firms and institutions not protected:

• Financial institutions
• Investment firms
• Insurance companies and reinsurance companies
• Investment funds, managers of investment funds, undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) and UCITS managers
• Pension funds
• Governments

In some very unusual cases, the money of individuals is not protected by the. That is the case, for instance,

• if persons have not identified themselves with the bank in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme – Wwft)
• if deposits arise from transactions involving a criminal conviction for money laundering.

If the Dutch Deposit Guarantee is activated, bank savings deposits for own homes will automatically be set off against the linked own-home debt (the mortgage debt).

In almost all cases, the balance of bank savings deposits consequently decreases to nil. Therefore, the deposit guarantee does not need to compensate for these bank savings deposits.

In an exceptional situation, the amount on your bank savings deposit for your own home may exceed the linked home loan. The remainder of the bank savings deposit will then simply be eligible for compensation by the deposit guarantee.

The interest on your payment or savings account does not affect the protection provided by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee. Even with a negative interest, your balance is protected up to €100,000 per person per bank.

Incidentally, it is good to know that the Dutch Deposit Guarantee not only protects the balance you see in your account. The protection also applies to the interest that you have already accumulated but which has not yet been credited. Normally, if the interest was negative, you would still have to pay the interest due. However, the Dutch Deposit Guarantee does not take negative interest due into account. So you have the assurance that in the event of your bank’s bankruptcy you will get back at least the balance that you see in your account.

On our page for companies you will find calculation examples that can help determine the protection for your business.

Should your bank ever go bankrupt, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) will publish information about the deposit guarantee on this website and in national media. Shortly thereafter, we will send you a letter. This ensures that everyone gets the information they need to claim reimbursement.

Steps in the compensation procedure

Broadly speaking, these are the steps involved in the procedure:

1. We will send you a letter outlining the action you need to take.
2. To get your money back, you will need an account at another bank. Do you not have one? Then you can open it first.
3. Within seven business days, we will launch a website, where you can log in with your digital ID (DigiD), issued by the Dutch government. All the money you have in the failed bank will be shown in a convenient overview, including savings and payment accounts.
4. You can have the total amount transferred in one go. After you have entered your new account number and have registered using your DigiD, the pay-out process will start.
5. The money will be in your other bank account within several business days.
6. At the moment, a statutory term of a maximum of 10 working days applies within which you can dispose of your money again after the bankruptcy of your bank.

All information about the protection of your money in your bank under the deposit guarantee can be found in the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Information Sheet that each bank makes available.

This information sheet shows, among other things, which deposit guarantee protects your money and whether your bank operates several brand names.

Every bank is obliged to keep customers informed about the protection provided by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee on an annual basis. So you know that your money is protected from 1 cent up to € 100,000 per person, per bank.

Banks do this through the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Information Sheet. Banks can provide the information sheet to their customers in various ways, for example by post or by e-mail. Your bank may also include the information sheet in your annual financial statement.

Deposit guarantee means that the money in your bank accounts is guaranteed up to €100,000, even if your bank goes bankrupt. Your money is automatically protected, from 1 cent up to € 100,000. You do not have to take any action yourself.

This protection applies per person, per bank. Additional temporary protection applies when you buy or sell your house. This protection does not apply to investment products, such as shares and bonds, insurance and virtual currencies such as bitcoin.

The Dutch Deposit Guarantee is in place to protect account holders. In the unlikely event that a Dutch bank goes bankrupt, its account holders get their money back up to €100,000 per person.

Your money in the bank is protected

The Dutch Deposit Guarantee protects your money in Dutch bank accounts by law. On the Dutch government's behalf, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), which is the supervisory authority and central bank of the Netherlands, administers this protection. The government and DNB consider it important that people know their money is protected. This protection strengthens the stability of the economy and sustainable prosperity in the Netherlands.

Confidence and stability

If people no longer have confidence in the security of their money in the bank, a bank run can occur. If large numbers of bank account holders try to withdraw their money, even a healthy bank can get into trouble. In operating the deposit guarantee, the government ensures that account holders’ money is always safe up to € 100,000 per person. This can prevent a bank run. If a bank goes bankrupt, the deposit guarantee allows account holders to regain access to their money quickly. They do not need to wait for the bank to be wound up.

We inform Dutch consumers about deposit guarantee because research shows that not every Dutch person is aware of it yet. Four out of ten Dutch people are not or hardly familiar with deposit guarantee and almost six out of ten are not familiar with the €100,000 limit.

As a central bank, we have an educational task in informing the Dutch people about important financial rights.

All Dutch banks are obliged to participate in the Dutch Deposit Guarantee. Banks are also obliged to contribute to the joint fund that finances the deposit guarantee: the Deposit Guarantee Fund.

The financing of deposit guarantee takes place via a joint fund: the Deposit Guarantee Fund. All Dutch banks are obliged to participate in the Dutch Deposit Guarantee. Banks are also obliged to deposit money (premiums) into the joint fund. This is how the deposit guarantee is financed.

The government considers it important that the money of all people is protected, from 1 cent up to € 100,000. That is why the Dutch Deposit Guarantee is regulated by law. This protection strengthens the stability of the economy and sustainable prosperity in the Netherlands. On the Dutch government's behalf, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) administers this protection.

As an independent financial sector supervisor, De Nederlandsche Bank is not allowed to make a value judgement on the reliability of a financial institution. For this, it is best to rely on media coverage and consumer experiences. 

The deposit guarantee is based on a European directive and provides equivalent protection in all EU countries. Within the euro area, your money is always protected up to €100,000 per person per bank. In non-euro countries within the European Union and in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the €100,000 may be converted into the local currency of the relevant country. In that case, small differences may arise due to exchange rate fluctuations.

You can use the Public Register on our website for this purpose. The register lists all European banks authorised to provide services in the Netherlands, including their home country. If you have a complaint about a bank, you should contact the national competent authority (NCA) of its home country. You can find an overview of all NCAs on the European Central Bank's banking supervision website.

Yes, they are. The money in accounts at a foreign bank operating in the Netherlands is protected by the deposit guarantee of the home country of that bank. In that case your money is also protected up to €100,000 or equivalent in the local currency per person per bank. Your bank can tell you which deposit guarantee applies: the Dutch Deposit Guarantee or the deposit guarantee of the bank's home country. Your bank can also tell you whether your type of account is covered under the deposit guarantee.

Some foreign banks operate through a subsidiary. In this case, the bank has a Dutch banking licence and is in fact considered a Dutch bank. The money in this bank is therefore protected by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee.

If your money is protected by a deposit guarantee scheme from another country, it may take longer to get your money back if a bank fails. The Dutch Deposit Guarantee ensures a payout period of 10 working days for customers of Dutch banks, who can get their money back using their DigiD.

If you are a customer of a branch of a foreign bank in the Netherlands, it may take longer to get your money back. DNB will arrange the payout on behalf of the foreign deposit guarantee scheme.

Ask the savings platform which deposit guarantee scheme (DGS) covers its product, as this depends on the platform's structure. If you have opened a savings account through a savings platform with a partner bank of the platform, the account will be covered by the DGS of the country where the partner bank is located. The platform’s website will often provide the information you need. 

Under European rules, all banks in the European Union must participate in a DGS. The same rules apply throughout the EU, meaning that DGSs provide equivalent protection in all EU Member States. Within the euro area, your money is always protected up to €100,000 per person per bank. In non-euro countries within the European Union and in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the €100,000 may be converted into local currency. In that case, small differences may arise due to exchange rate fluctuations. Also, the way in which payouts are made by the DGS may vary from country to country. 

Your bank can tell you more about the protection of specific products and your personal situation.

Do you have a specific question for DNB about the protection by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee? You can always contact our . Call 0800 020 1068 (freephone in the Netherlands) or +31 20 524 91 11 (if you call us from abroad) on business days between 9:00 and 17:00. Or send an e-mail to info@dnb.nl.

The Dutch Deposit Guarantee is put down in law based on a European directive. The EU Directive governing deposit guarantee schemes was implemented in Dutch legislation on 26 November 2015.

• Directive 2014/49/EU on deposit guarantee schemes
• Decree on Special Prudential Measures, Investor Compensation and Deposit Guarantees under the Wft (Besluit bijzondere prudentiële maatregelen, beleggerscompensatie en depositogarantie Wft)

You can find information on the Dutch Deposit Guarantee for banks and other professional parties on dnb.nl, under Sector Information.