Government matters

At ABN AMRO, this dialogue is coordinated by the Public Affairs team through contact with members of the Dutch Parliament, Dutch government ministers and their ministries, the European Parliament, the European Commission and others. In these exchanges, developments are discussed that are directly or indirectly relevant to ABN AMRO, as well as initiatives to which our bank can make a constructive contribution.   

Monitoring and influencing

The Public Affairs team is made up of two in-house lobbyists. One covers The Hague, the other Brussels, and together they are the eyes and ears of ABN AMRO in the political arena. They constantly monitor important developments around legislation, regulations and policy, reporting back to the Executive Board and senior management on information relevant to the bank. In addition, ABN AMRO's subsidiary ABN AMRO Clearing has its own in-house lobbyists covering the specialist area of clearing in Brussels. The presence of these in-house lobbyists enables both ABN AMRO Bank and ABN AMRO Clearing to anticipate political and legislative developments and make timely changes where necessary.   

Direct advocacy

An important part of ABN AMRO’s lobbying activities is sharing information from and about ABN AMRO with stakeholders in politics and official bodies, enabling them - politicians, policy makers, regulators etc. - to take ABN AMRO’s interests into account when developing new legislation, regulations and policy. Supported by the Public Affairs team, ABN AMRO’s board members, senior managers and experts share this information formally and informally in writing, one-on-one talks, exchanges with several stakeholders at a time, closed and public consultations and discussions with experts.

Indirect advocacy

The Public Affairs team is also active in business organisations such as the Dutch Banking Association (NVB), the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), and the Institute of International Finance (IIF). In addition, representatives at country level are active in the banking associations in the countries they operate in, and experts in ABN AMRO's client units and functions participate in various local, regional and global sector and industry associations. A great deal of information about politics and policy is exchanged in these bodies, which often maintain contact with politicians and policymakers themselves and indirectly represent the interests of ABN AMRO.   

Memberships of industry and business associations

Policy topics

The topics ABN AMRO generally focuses on in its lobbying activities include financial transactions, consumer credit, mortgages, investments, business lending, duty of care, protecting vulnerable clients, corporate social responsibility, sustainable financing, tackling climate change, promoting the energy transition, secure banking, preventing and combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, privacy, new entrants and competition, banking supervision, capital requirements, and consolidation in the banking sector. In 2023, the most important topics of discussion included, at EU legislative level: strengthening legislation to combat money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT package), implementing Basel III standards (Banking package), and bringing financial institutions into scope of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D); and at Dutch legislative level: lobbying Dutch legislators against proposed increases of the Dutch bank tax to be used for unrelated social spending, and explaining the bank’s work in the area of anti-money laundering transactions monitoring to policy makers from Dutch ministries.

Aligning with ‘Paris’

Given the great importance of tackling climate change – to which ABN AMRO contributes by implementing its climate strategy and aligning its activities with the Paris Climate Agreement and the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) – ABN AMRO's lobbying activities must also be aligned with 'Paris'. A process has therefore been set up to assess whether our own direct lobbying activities, as well as the indirect lobbying activities of the (most relevant) trade organisations of which we are a member, are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. If, during that process, we find that there are differences between our position on climate change and the position of the trade association in question, we will endeavour to adjust the position of that trade association or, if that proves impossible, to publicly address the misalignment and state that the trade association does not represent the views and position of ABN AMRO.

No political contributions

It is ABN AMRO’s stated position as an organisation not to provide any financial contributions to individual politicians, political parties or political campaigns worldwide. Employees are free to make financial contributions in a private capacity, as long as these contributions are in compliance with locally applicable laws and regulations.

Transparency

ABN AMRO’s in-house lobbyists are registered in the EU’s Transparency Register (under the identification numbers 353231132587-96 and 368029129221-78, respectively). They perform their duties in compliance with both the Dutch Banker’s Oath and the European Code of Conduct for Interest Representatives.

Since July 2022, ABN AMRO's in-house lobbyist located in The Hague is no longer registered in the Lobbyists’ Register of the House of Representatives at the Dutch Parliament. This is because this register's only purpose is to show the individuals to whom permanent parliamentary access passes have been issued. ABN AMRO's in-house lobbyist does not require permanent access and will apply for a daily access pass on each visit to the Dutch Parliament, thus creating a record of each individual visit.

Although ABN AMRO works together with external agencies that are active in the fields of public affairs and advocacy, this cooperation is limited to intelligence gathering regarding political and legislative developments. Apart from its 3.3 FTE in-house lobbyists, ABN AMRO does not employ any external lobbyists.