Dutch Fintech action plan

Wopke Hoekstra, Dutch Minister of Finance

Connective Payments, 3 July 2020

The Dutch Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra has launched the so called FinTech action plan to let the current 635 FinTech companies grow faster and give opportunities to new companies.

The Netherlands´ strong points according to the government are: a digital infrastructure, attractive culture, English language, central location and high quality of supervision. There are also areas for improvement: the plan mentions governmental propagation of Fintech policies, attracting talent and paying attention to remuneration policy (the Netherlands has the most stringent bonus policy in the EU for financial institutions) and scaling up abroad.

The Dutch FinTech Action Plan is based on three pillars:

 
  • Putting the Dutch FinTech climate and sector on the map both nationally and internationally
    • Partnering abroad and access to partners (e.g. Singapore & Israel FinTech hubs)
    • Access to capital (e.g. 10M euros made available through MKB!dee, and stimulating investments in Fintech such as the BMKB scheme);
  • Good access to knowledge and talent for FinTechs
    • Improvement of residence arrangements for key personnel of startups
    • Fiscal scheme to make stock option rights as remuneration more attractive (the recently announced Tax Plan 2021 does not address this objective yet)
    • Innovation hub and central bank innovation forum;
  • Regulation that is ready for the future and offers room for innovation
    • Removal of hurdles for access to new technology and new markets
    • Proportionality in legislation and regulations for small businesses and start-ups
    • Development of regulations regarding innovative products and services (e.g. fully automated robo-advice)
    • Further harmonization of financial services regulation and supervision.

Read the action plan here. (in Dutch)

Update 2021

The Ministry of Finance submitted a progress report to the House of Representatives on 13-10-2021. You will find this here.

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