Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets chair calls on supervisors and firms to adapt to polarization and societal divides

In a column for Financieele Dagblad, Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) chair Laura van Geest argues that growing polarization in the Netherlands requires companies, financial institutions and supervisors to look beyond their own “bubbles” and reflect on how social divisions shape both market behaviour and regulatory judgement. She highlights how “theoretically educated” groups disproportionately influence public debate and policy and notes that supervisors are often drawn from the same background, which can create blind spots because observation is shaped by lived experience. The column points to experienced discrimination in work connected to the anti-money laundering law (Wwft) as an example of an issue that might have surfaced earlier with broader perspectives. Van Geest also frames risk-based supervision as involving subjective prioritisation of not only illegal but also harmful practices, and uses climate and environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics to illustrate the tension between assessing financial impacts and navigating more contested societal choices. On communication and legitimacy, she stresses the need for supervisors to act as an independent arbiter and flags practical dilemmas when supervised multinationals adjust ESG language in politically charged environments, raising questions about transparency versus underlying intent. The column does not announce specific policy measures or changes to the AFM’s supervisory framework.