ABN AMRO named Best retail bank in the Netherlands by Euromoney
ABN AMRO has been named the Netherlands’ Best Retail Bank by the international financial platform Euromoney. The award was presented during the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2026 and recognises ABN AMRO’s ongoing efforts to make banking accessible, personal and relevant for millions of clients in the Netherlands, as well as for a younger generation through our new neo-bank BUUT.
According to the jury, ABN AMRO shows how an established bank can continue to innovate successfully by responding to changing client needs and engaging new target groups. The launch of BUUT is a strong example of this. With a social media-style newsfeed, financial education and digital savings pots, BUUT connects with the daily lives and financial needs of a new generation of clients. The jury also praised ABN AMRO’s strong results, including growth in its mortgage portfolio, a larger market share in savings, and the further expansion of its services through, among others, BUX and the planned acquisition of NIBC.
Annerie Vreugdenhil, Chief Commercial Officer Personal & Business Banking:
“This recognition shows that banking is about more than products and technology. In the end, it is about trust: understanding what clients need at important moments in their lives and continuously improving our services so they meet expectations at every age and life stage, while also keeping pace with developments in society. We are grateful to our clients for the trust they place in us.”
CaixaBank brings its HolaBank mortgage services for foreign buyers to the Second Home Expo in the Netherlands
CaixaBank will showcase its leadership in innovation and financial services in the Second Home Expo, an international fair held in Den Bosch on September 19, which every year gathers the most prominent players of the second-hand real estate market in Europe.
The event in Den Bosch attracts thousands of visitors interested in acquiring second homes abroad and is one of the main focal points where potential buyers and international real estate companies gather to learn about the latest market offers.
In this scenario, HolaBank -CaixaBank’s specialized programme for international customers who spend long periods of time in Spain or who wish to settle in the country-, will welcome customers to a stand in the fair where they’ll be able to learn about the full-service catalogue catering for their needs.
This presence at the Second Home fair in Den Bosch underscores CaixaBank’s commitment to support international customers from the moment they arrive in the country and throughout their stay, offering a comprehensive financial service that meets their needs and makes their day-to-day life as easy as possible.
CaixaBank’s commitment is to be where its clients are, accompanying them in the process of searching for a bank in Spain while joining forces with the more than 80 real estate agencies and mortgage brokers that operate in Spain, a perfect combination to help customers find a home from their own country of origin.
With an extensive network of physical branches that last year was expanded by 20%, and a fully-optimised remote service model that was just launched this year, HolaBank offers an omnichannel and tailor-made customer service that helps international buyers settle in Spain.
By the end of June 2025, HolaBank’s mortgage portfolio stood at €5 billion, with a notable increase of 11.6% from the same period last year, precisely due to the growth on the number of customers attracted to the entity’s value proposition.
This growth on the business volume was also motivated by the overall growth in the purchase of real estate in Spain by international buyers, which in the last year exceeded the 100,000 transactions.
Dutch buyers’ interest picks up in the Valencian Community and Andalusia
HolaBank provides attention to nearly 20 nationalities in more than 14 languages and offers a wide array of solutions for international buyers to open accounts and apply for mortgages.
Besides these solutions, CaixaBank’s specialized programme aimed at international customers also offers additional services such as the Club HolaBank, which has 24/7 telephone support and online translation and interpreting services.
Playing to these strengths have allowed the bank to continue evolving to adapt to each buyer’s specific needs, such as those of Dutch citizens looking to purchase properties in the Valencian Community, a Spanish region that has historically picked up Dutch buyers’ interest in towns such as Altea, Jávea or Denia and Alicante Sur.
As a matter of fact, CaixaBank’s Research data shows that 14% of total purchase by non-residents in the Valencian Community are made by Dutch citizens, who also represent a 11% of the total purchases in Andalusia, another vastly popular region among foreign buyers.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the citizens of the Netherlands have consolidated themselves as the fifth largest group of non-resident buyers in the Spanish residential market. Between 2020 and 2024, they concentrated 7.4% of the total of purchases made by non-residents, a share that rose to 9.6% in 2024, reflecting a growing interest in the Spanish real estate market.
In addition, Dutch buyers have consolidated themselves as one of the international groups with the highest growth in the Spanish residential market in recent years. While between 2010 and 2019 its purchases barely represented 3.7% of the total, its share has increased significantly since then (close to 4 percentage points), in an advance that has only been surpassed by Polish buyers.
Thanks to its local presence and deep market knowledge, HolaBank offers personalized service that streamlines and simplifies the mortgage process, ensuring compliance with local regulations and customer satisfaction.
This service model allows potential Dutch buyers to acquire properties in the Valencian Community efficiently and tailored to their expectations, and those who are interested will be able to learn more about HolaBank’s services at the Den Bosch Second Home fair on September 19.
HolaBank’s value proposition
HolaBank is CaixaBank’s specialised programme aimed at international customers who spend long periods of time in Spain or who wish to settle in Spain. Through this programme, the bank accompanies the international customer from their arrival in the country and throughout their stay, offering a comprehensive financial service that responds to their financial needs and provides the maximum of their day to day.
For this, the programme has a proprietary network of 380 branches located in the main tourist affluence areas, more than 500 specialised managers in this type of customers, and the CaixaBankNow application, available in 20 languages, forming an omnichannel service model that accompanies customers at all times and from anywhere.
HolaBank also offers a wide range of financial and non-financial products and services, specifically designed to meet the specific needs of CaixaBank’s international customers.
These include the HolaBank Account, which includes a pack of high-value financial services for customers, as well as the HolaBank Club with 24/7 telephone service in 5 languages, online translation and interpreting services, supplies registration, among others, with the aim of attending to all your needs in Spain.
The division is also a pioneer in technological innovation, becoming the first company in Spain to offer 100% digital solutions for both opening an account in 5 simple steps (on-boarding digital) and applying for a mortgage (MortgageNow).
In this way, CaixaBank strengthens its strategy of offering a specialised banking model by segment, fully adapted to the needs of each profile, with the aim of always offering the best customer experience.
Inmarsat to move shipping comms from Netherlands to Greece
British satellite communications company Inmarsat said on Wednesday it is nearing an agreement to move some of its ground communications systems from the Netherlands to Greece, resolving a conflict over 5G bandwidth use.
The systems based in Burum, Netherlands, use the 3.5Ghz frequency range for emergency communications with sea traffic. Their location has been in doubt for years as the Dutch government plans to use the 3.5Ghz range for 5G telecommunications.
Inmarsat said it received confirmation from the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance last week that it will be able to continue using a new ground station in Thermopylae, Greece. It expects the agreement to be finalised within several weeks.
“We will continue to operate within the current spectrum from Burum before completing our migration to our new location in Greece,” a spokesperson said.
Inmarsat was acquired this year by Viasat VSAT.O of the United States for $7.3 billion.
The Dutch 5G roll out has lagged behind that of other European countries because of disputes over the use of the 3.5GHz bandwidth, with key auctions now expected no earlier than spring 2024.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
ABN AMRO accepted settlement offer in the anti-money laundering investigation in the Netherlands
Today ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (ABN AMRO) announced that it has accepted a settlement offer from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (DPPS) in connection with the previously announced investigation by the DPPS into ABN AMRO’s compliance with its obligations under the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financiering van terrorisme, AML/CTF Act) between 2014 and 2020. As part of this settlement, ABN AMRO will pay EUR 480 million.
ABN AMRO fully cooperated with the DPPS throughout the investigation. Based on the investigation, the DPPS identified serious shortcomings in ABN AMRO’s processes to combat money laundering in the Netherlands, such as the client acceptance, transaction monitoring and client exit processes (the so-called ‘Client Life Cycle’ processes) in the period between 2014 and 2020, as a result of which, in certain instances, clients were able to abuse ABN AMRO accounts.
ABN AMRO deeply regrets the situation and recognises the seriousness of the matter, and that it has fallen short in the fulfilment of its role as gatekeeper aimed at combatting money laundering. ABN AMRO will continue to make every effort to fulfil its role as gatekeeper.
ABN AMRO CEO Robert Swaak: “As a bank we do not merely have a legal, but also a moral duty to do our utmost to protect the financial system against abuse by criminals. In fulfilling this duty, we aim to make a meaningful contribution to a safer society. Regretfully, I have to acknowledge that in the past we have been insufficiently successful in properly fulfilling our important role as gatekeeper. This is unacceptable and we take full responsibility for this.”
In recent years, ABN AMRO had itself already identified shortcomings in the way it implemented its ‘Client Life Cycle’ processes. To address these shortcomings, the bank has prioritised remediation and enhancement programmes in each of the business lines of the bank over the years, as well as bank-wide with respect to transaction monitoring. ABN AMRO has invested heavily in these remediation and enhancement programmes over several years, including investments in its systems and the growth of its staff . Unfortunately, ABN AMRO has to recognise that, despite all of its efforts and intentions, its improvement programmes have not always had the desired effect, and that several shortcomings, some of which serious, have been identified in its ‘Client Life Cycle’ processes.
In response to the identified shortcomings in its ‘Client Life Cycle’ processes and in order to address increasingly strict regulations and continuously evolving forms of financial crime, ABN AMRO decided to centralise the execution of the ‘Client Life Cycle’ processes in October of 2018. To this end, ABN AMRO set up the Detecting Financial Crime (DFC) programme and made substantial additional (financial) resources available for investments in staff, systems and processes. The DFC programme is progressing according to the timetable as agreed upon with DNB, and the programme is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. By the end of 2020, the total number of full-time employees involved in ABN AMRO’s ‘Client Life Cycle’ processes had increased to 3,800 (one in five jobs at ABN AMRO). The bank is convinced that its current approach is the right way to systematically remediate shortcomings across the bank, and to embed this remediation in its day-to-day operations. Besides this, ABN AMRO is also actively involved in various public-private partnerships aimed at of contributing to safer society.
As part of the settlement announced today, ABN AMRO agrees to pay a fine of EUR 300 million and EUR 180 million as disgorgement. The amount of the fine reflects the seriousness, scope and duration of the identified shortcomings. The amount of the disgorgement reflects the amount of costs that ABN AMRO saved according to the DPPS. The total amount of EUR 480 million will impact the bank’s first quarter results in 2021.
Robert Swaak: “This settlement marks the end of a painful and disappointing episode for ABN AMRO. The lessons we have learned from this experience drive us in our continued effort as gatekeepers to achieve a safer society and a financial system that meets the highest standards of integrity.”