Activities requiring a licence

Factsheet
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Any party wanting to pursue the business of a bank in the Netherlands must hold the appropriate licence. Except where a statutory exception to the licence requirement exists.

Published: 01 April 2017

If your institution intends to develop activities as included in the definition of a bank, you require a licence if your institution also pursues the business of a bank.

Pursuing the business of 

A person or entity is taken to pursue the business of a bank - taking deposits or other repayable funds from the public and granting credits for its own account - if these activities are "separately identifiable" and do not serve only to support other principal activities.

If an entity's principal activities are non-financial, for instance inviting funds to support its own business, this entity does not "pursue the business of" the taking of funds or the granting of credits and therefore does not constitute a bank. This does not apply if the entity's principal activities are financial, as this always qualifies as "pursuing the business of".

Information licence application for a bank

License or no license

Licence application

Background information

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