Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets publishes chair's column urging more long term investing by Dutch households

The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets published a Financial Dagblad column by its chair Laura van Geest arguing that Dutch households could improve financial resilience and retirement outcomes by both building adequate cash buffers and investing more once those buffers are in place. The piece presents this as a consumer financial wellbeing issue rather than investment advice, and says supervision should protect retail investors without creating unnecessary barriers. Van Geest cites figures showing that 23% of middle income households and 15% of high income households have a buffer of less than one month, while one in three households did not invest in 2024 despite having enough resources after allowing for the Nibud buffer recommendation. For one in ten households, around 800,000, this coincides with insufficient first and second pillar pension accrual to maintain current living standards in retirement. More than half of non-investors cite lack of knowledge, about 40% cite risk and about 30% say investing does not interest them. The column also highlights retail risks including investment fraud estimated by the AFM at about EUR 750 million last year, frequent trading, and unsuitable products such as private credit, cryptoassets and prediction markets, while suggesting regular contributions to a broadly diversified index fund as one possible approach.