AFM fines BinckBank €530,000 for infringement of product governance rules
The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) imposed an administrative fine of €530,000 on BinckBank N.V. BinckBank is an online broker that currently trades under the name Saxo Bank.
The AFM imposed the fine because, in the period from December 2019 to December 2021, BinckBank did not have procedures and measures in place to safeguard that clients only invested in financial products appropriate for the target market to which they belonged. BinckBank’s policy was insufficiently specific and concrete in this regard. The AFM has since established that BinckBank’s policy currently complies with the statutory requirements.
On 3 June 2022, the AFM imposed an order for incremental penalty payments on BinckBank to put an end to this infringement. BinckBank has since complied with the terms set in this order; the AFM has established that its product governance policy currently complies with the statutory requirements.
The AFM has fined BinckBank for its past infringement. Since 2019, the AFM had repeatedly called BinckBank to account for its inadequate product governance and also issued guidance on this. Nonetheless, several years passed before BinckBank implemented the required improvements in its policy, which it wrongfully delayed until the migration to Saxo Bank had been completed.
As BinckBank has lent its full cooperation to the AFM’s investigation and has consented to the simplified settlement of this fineable matter in accordance with the AFM’s procedure for the simplified settlement of fineable matters, the original fine of €625,000 has been reduced by 15% to €530,000.
August 12, 2023 @ 7:04 am
This Binck (aka Saxo) long term fiasco fits in nicely with the Saxo fiasco (2018 to 2021) criminal report to the Danish police, so neatly reported and admitted by Saxo Bank’s Steen Blaafalk, as reported here.
Add Saxo Japan in 2020….And FSA reports on systems and controls…and so on….A tough job for Saxo Public Relations to suppress. They do well!
August 22, 2023 @ 7:30 am
I’m interested
May 15, 2025 @ 9:34 am
Saxo de-banked me for having the nerve to reveal that Saxo hid, then stonewalled, material evidence from mediators, or the public.
Saxo is also hiding the Saxo director’s apology (By Mr Steen) to a police investigation after which the director resigned. (The full apology was reported here but has succumbed to Saxo Public Relations influence)
It’s nice to see that Saxo’s Public relations have not (yet) snuffed out all these reports.
May 15, 2025 @ 10:07 am
Not just Brink! Saxo have quite a long history of similar stories over the years, even from the Danish FSA itself being repeatedly left with little option. The Saxo PR machine works well but digging on websites produces material.
The Saxo report and apology to (“TO”) the Danish police instead of the report from (“FROM”) the Danish police are surely intentionally confused by PR machinery.
Another large bank is now on the written record of a similar MO…and a similar MO to cover it up with success.
Both banks stored their hidden records (and phone recordings which I now have) outside the EEA actually proven ………in India.