Insurers having their registered office in a European Economic Area (EEA) country can set up a branch office in the Netherlands or provide services to the Netherlands. To do so, they must first follow a notification procedure.
The EEA brings together the EU Member States and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein in a single market. These pages refer to these EEA countries as "member states".
A branch office is a physical place of business in the Netherlands operated by an insurer having its registered office in another member state. If this insurer does not have a physical presence, but provides its services into the Netherlands directly from its home member state, this is referred to as cross-border service provision.
Under Solvency II authorisation, insurers authorised in their home member states are permitted to operate in any other member state. This is known as "passporting". This means the company does not need a separate authorisation issued by DNB to operate in the Netherlands. It must have authorisation issued in its home member state covering the services provided in the Netherlands. In addition, the insurer must follow a passporting notification procedure. The supervision of insurers from other EEA member states – and, hence, their branch offices in the Netherlands and/or their cross-border services into the Netherlands – rests with the supervisors of the home member states, also known as “home supervisors”.
Prior to taking up their activities in the Netherlands, insurers from other EEA member states must follow a notification procedure through their home supervisors¬ and submit a notification form to DNB. Notification includes an overview of the activities to be carried out and a statement to the effect that the insurer’s solvency capital meets the applicable requirements and applies irrespective of whether the EEA insurer intends to open a branch office or provide cross-border services. If an insurer wants to open a branch office, additional information is required, including details of the authorised representative of the branch office.
If it intends to provide cross-border services, it can start its operations after submitting the notification. Contrary to cross-border service provision, the activities of a branch office may not start until two months after DNB has confirmed receipt of the full notification, or after it has informed the EEA insurer, through its home supervisor, of any additional conditions to be observed in the public interest. The branch office may start its operations two months after DNB’s confirmation of receipt, or directly upon receipt of information on additional conditions.
After completing the notification procedure, the EEA insurer is entered in a public register maintained by DNB.
DNB processes incoming notifications free of charge.
How does one bring the professional oath to life in daily practice? Representatives from the financial sector and the supervisory authorities tackled this question at the DNB seminar on the professional oath in late 2022.
Read more The professional oath in daily practice
Insurers in the Netherlands continued to sell direct investments in bonds in 2023, new figures from DNB show. For the fourth year in a row, insurers sold more bonds than they bought.
Read more Dutch insurers continue to invest less in bonds
In view of our continued support for a deeper and more integrated European Capital Markets Union (CMU), De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) present next steps to shape the right policies and create a competitive European capital market.
Read more DNB and AFM: recommendations for a strong European Capital Markets Union
Dutch institutional investors such as pension funds, investment funds and insurers kept their investments in risky bonds roughly the same over the past 12 months. This is a break from previous years: since 2019, large investors had expanded their exposure to what are termed high-yield bonds.
Read more Dutch large investors do not expand investments in high-risk bonds
