The ‘Stichting Obligatiehouders SNS’, which acts on the interest of expropriated subordinated bondholders SNS, including some Maltese investors, has challenged ‘De Nederlandsche Bank’ in court for inappropriate decision-making that has led to the nationalisation of SNS REAAL and SNS Bank.

The foundation charges the DNB of imposing irrational and unnecessary measures upon the SNS Bank without sufficient legal basis.

The foundation has already objected to this action by DNB last March. DNB has refused to respond to the complaint of the foundation because it considers the foundation ‘non-admissible’. The foundation will now force DNB via the administrative court to react to its criticisms.

On 27 January, DNB forced the SNS Bank to raise its capital by €1.84 billion within four days otherwise DNB would withdraw the banking licence. This was an impossible task, and the (now former) board of SNS REAAL and SNS Bank immediately filed objections against this decision. 

A few days later Minister Dijsselbloem nationalized SNS REAAL and SNS Bank and he has refrained from paying any compensation. 

The foundation then filed on behalf of a large number of expropriated bondholders a petition against  DNB. After a messy procedure, DNB decided on 9 August, not to respond to the concerns of the foundation because the foundation would be non-admissible.

SNS REAAL and SNS Bank are according to DNB the only admissible parties, but the new appointed management of SNS has discussed the case with DNB only and has finally withdrawn the complaint. One must point out that these initial concerns of SNS Reaal and SNS Bank largely reflect the concerns of the foundation and other investors.

"This action is simply a put-up job” says Frans Faas, chairman of the Foundation. "The nationalisation was a ‘one-two’ between the minister and DNB and this trick is repeated once in the objection procedure with DNB. More than six months after the expropriation DNB has still not accounted for its own role in the SNS affair.

“DNB has promised to work for a culture-change in the financial sector, which should provide more transparency and accountability, but its own action doesn’t reflect this at all. The foundation now wants to force DNB to respond to the objections, through an appeal at the Court of Rotterdam.”