Last week the NVB, the Dutch Bankers Association, held their annual New Years Meeting. It's President, Mr Collee, held a speech"on the position of banks in society. In it he outlined the numerous roles and responsibilities of banks as well as the intention of the NVB to create a better understanding of the role of banks in society by being open, responsive and pro-active. The speech is quite reflective in nature and well worth reading.
Todays Financieele Dagblad notes that the Dutch competition authority does not recognize the critical note of Collee on their functioning. What Collee stated was that the new financial monitor of the NMa created a bad image while not containing any substantial evidence as to problems in the market. In reply the NMa now says that it finds that banks generally are satisfied with the supervision of the NMa..... (as if any supervised entity would ever tell its supervisor different...?).
