The Dutch cabinet does not want to undertake action to make saving safer

Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra does not believe that the establishment of a private deposit bank will help to make saving safer for private individuals. Therefore, he does not want to change the rules for private deposit banks. In its report, the WRR advocated the establishment of a bank that would only deal with saving and paying, in a low-risk environment. That means that such a bank would have to stall all its entrusted savings at the European Central Bank.  

Minister Hoekstra says that the Dutch cabinet understands the analysis of the WRR. However, such a private initiatief must be developed within the applicable legal framework. That means that such a deposit bank must also take part in the deposit guarantee scheme. This would imply that the bank can be held accountable when commercial banks go bankrupt, while the bank its own savings bear little to no risk. It is for this reason that a similar proposal of the foundation Full Reserve was rejected in 2016.   

Furthermore, the Dutch cabinet thinks that there are insufficient reasons to establish a public deposit bank itself. According to Minister Hoekstra, the current system offer enough opportunities for private individuals to safely stall their money via the deposit guarantee scheme, which guarantees savings up to a maximum of EUR 100,000 per individual in case of a bank failure. In addition, the public interest has been strengthened in the past few years by making buffer requirements stricter.    

The Dutch cabinet thinks that further research should be done on the topic of saving and paying at central banks via central bank digital currency. Central bank digital currency should namely enable private individuals to hold deposits at the central bank themselves. The cabinet has asked the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) to conduct this research. In 2018, DNB had already reported that it has adopted a critical attitude towards central bank digital currency because of the uncertainties and risks associated with it. That is also the reason why many other central banks are not in favour of issuing central bank digital currency. This leads to yet another difficulty, because the Netherlands, as a member of the Monetary Union, cannot issue central bank digital currency on its own.