A new Act on the Supervision of Trust Offices

Short Reads - In a decision of Friday 15 May 2020, the Dutch Supreme Court confirmed that fixed-to-floating rate perpetual equity securities (“perpetual securities”) should not be considered a “participation loan” (deelnemerschapslening) for Dutch tax purposes. Under Dutch tax law, characterization of a debt instrument as a “participation loan” implies that such instrument is deemed equity for Dutch corporate income tax purposes. Characterization of the perpetual securities as a participation loan would have meant that the interest would have been regarded non-deductible dividend.

Articles - The two in-depth analyses examine, respectively, the impact of the reform on the governance of financial institutions and on financial transactions, and the new form of limited company ("Société à responsabilité limitée"/"Besloten vennootschap").

Short Reads - Hans Van Bavel, Elisabeth Matthys and Ann Apers contributed to the Financial and Business Crime Global Guide. 

Short Reads - On 21 April 2020, the legislative proposal for the Financial Markets Repair Act 2020 (the “Proposal”) was submitted to Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer). The Proposal repairs deficiencies and omissions that have occurred in the implementation in Dutch law of certain pieces of European legislation in the field of financial markets. A number of proposed changes are related to the implementation of the (amended) fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (“AMLD”).