The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs)1 issue guidelines and recommendations to national competent authorities or financial institutions. The aim is to promote the consistency, efficiency and effectiveness of supervisory practices and to ensure that Union law is applied in a common, uniform and consistent manner.
National competent authorities (NCAs), including De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), are required to make every effort to comply with the guidelines and recommendations of the ESAs2. Within two months after a guideline or recommendation has been issued, each competent authority confirms whether it complies or intends to comply with it. Where a competent authority does not comply or does not intend to comply – for example because national legislation prevents it from doing so – it informs the relevant ESA thereof, stating the reasons. This process is referred to as the “comply-or-explain procedure”.
The overview below sets out the guidelines and recommendations with which DNB complies. The overview includes the guidelines and recommendations adopted by the ESAs and the Joint Committee insofar as they concern rules for financial institutions whose supervision in the Netherlands rests with DNB. For each guideline or recommendation, the overview indicates: 1) the legal basis in the underlying European Directive or Regulation, and 2) the date on which the guideline or recommendation applies. The full texts of the guidelines and recommendations of the EBA can be consulted on the webpage Compliance with EBA regulatory products. See also the EBA Single Rulebook. The guidelines of EIOPA can be consulted on the webpage EIOPA Guidelines. See also the Solvency II Single Rulebook. Finally, the guidelines of ESMA can be found on the webpage Guidelines and Technical Standards. The guidelines of ESMA often concern the activities of financial institutions whose supervision rests with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). The ESMA guidelines applied by DNB are listed in the overview below. More information on ESMA guidelines and recommendations applied by the AFM can be found on the website of the AFM.
Note: This overview will be updated frequently, but it is possible that the latest version is not entirely up to date yet. The date on the document indicates when it was last updated.
[1] The three European Supervisory Authorities are the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The ESAs cooperate within a joint forum known as the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (Joint Committee, JC). The JC also issues guidelines.
[2] This is laid down in Article 16(3) of the founding Regulations of the ESAs – Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 (EBA), Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 (EIOPA) and Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 (ESMA) – and confirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union in its judgment of 15 July 2021 in the dispute between the Fédération bancaire française and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution – ECLI:EU:C:2021:599. In that judgment, the Court confirmed not only that, although EBA guidelines are not legally binding, supervisory authorities and financial institutions must make every effort to comply with them (paragraphs 43 and 48), but also that national courts are expected to take EBA guidelines into consideration when resolving cases (paragraph 71 of the judgment).
25 March 2026
News item supervision
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News item supervision
To facilitate a smooth licensing process, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has further clarified and updated the explanatory notes to the licence application forms for payment service providers and electronic money institutions.
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13 March 2026
The resolution of a payment or electronic money institution (hereinafter: payment institutions) entails many operational, legal and financial challenges, particularly if the institution makes extensive use of agents or outsourcing partners.
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News
In the fourth quarter of 2025, Dutch pension funds saw their funding ratios improve relative to the previous quarter, as the value of their liabilities decreased more than the value of their investments.
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