The Financial Markets Amendment Act 2016 enters into force today

The Financial Markets Amendment Act 2016 (Amendment Act) enters into force today (1 April 2016). That means that today, the Dutch Financial Supervision Act will change materially. The most important changes are:

• New rules with regard to the protection of derivatives holders against the bankruptcy of an intermediary (including banks). Derivatives positions which an intermediary takes on behalf of a client should be separated from the assets of the intermediary and the intermediary should keep a proper administration thereof. In addition, banks are obliged to indicate in advance in what capacity the bank is taking derivatives positions on behalf of clients: as intermediary or as final counterparty.
• The top-up regime for AIFMD-managers who offer funds to retail investors is not applicable anymore when offering participation rights to high net worth individuals. This contains offers of which (i) the participation rights can only be acquired at a counter-value of at least EUR 100,000 per participant, or (ii) which have a nominal value per participation right of at least EUR 100,000.
• The Amendment Act entails a number of changes with regard to the supervision of settlement institutions. These changes will see to it that the market entry provisions better align with the provisions relating to ongoing supervision. The most important changes entail that the regulations for settlement institutions based in the Netherlands and the regulations for settlement institutions based in a non-designated state are brought in line.