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.