Dutch Central Bank responds to the United Bitcoin Companies Netherlands

The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) has responded to a letter from the United Bitcoin Companies Netherlands (VBNL), in which it addresses questions concerning its supervision of crypto-service providers, which is argued to be too stringent.

Key observations surrounding the letter and the issue of Dutch crypto-service supervision include:

• DNB indicates that whitelisting and verification are no requirements set by DNB, but examples of how compliance with the applicable sanctions legislation can be applied by crypto-service providers.
• DNB disagrees with the VBNL's view that new requirements have been introduced. According to DNB, these requirements were already in place before the registration regime came into force.
• Crypto-service providers are required to take 'adequate control' of their records, but DNB emphasises that 'adequate control' is an open standard, and consequences may differ from sector to sector.
• According to DNB, 'adequate control' means that during the client onboarding process, all relationships should be assessed and any information regarding these relationships (e.g. name, address, and date of birth) should be obtained. In order to be able to reference transactions against sanctions lists, the identity and the location of the counterparty and beneficiary must be clear.
• DNB confirms that the obligation for crypto-service providers to comply with sanctions legislation does not follow directly from the AMLD5. The Dutch legislator introduced these requirements.

For more information on these observations, contact your regular CMS advisor or local CMS experts Clair Wermers and Karsten Bruinsma.