NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Roderik Vrolijk, Rogier Raas, Ingrid Viertelhauzen and Maarten Weekenborg, Stibbe
5.2 Regulation of Cross-Border Payments and Remittances Cross-border payments and remittances are regulated through EU and Dutch rules. Any entity providing pay - ment services in or from the Netherlands requires a licence from DNB, unless it has passported its licence from another member state. PSD2 extends its trans - parency and information requirements to “one-leg” transactions where only one payment service provider is located within the EEA. Within the eurozone, the SEPA Regulation harmonises the technical standards for credit transfers and direct debits, while the Cross-Border Payments Regulation ensures that charges for cross-border euro payments within the EU correspond to those for domestic trans - actions. AML/CFT is a primary focus area. Payment service providers are obliged entities under the Wwft and must conduct customer due diligence, monitor transactions and report unusual transactions to FIU-Netherlands. The Transfer of Funds Regulation requires that payer and payee information accompanies all fund transfers and extends this “travel rule” to crypto-asset trans - fers. 6. Marketplaces, Exchanges and Trading Platforms 6.1 Permissible Trading Platforms Different types of marketplaces and trading platforms are recognised in the Netherlands. Under MiFID II and its Dutch implementation in the Wft, three types of trading venues are distinguished: • regulated market; • multilateral trading facility (MTF); and • organised trading facility (OTF). The operation of an MTF or an OTF constitutes an investment activity, for which an investment firm licence is required from the AFM. For the operation of a regulated market, a licence is required from the Dutch Minister of Finance. There is considerable over - lap in the regulatory requirements applicable to these trading venues. In addition to the MiFID II trading ven -
are attracted from the public, banking-licence restric - tions under the Wft apply.
5. Payment Processors 5.1 Payment Processors’ Use of Payment Rails Payment processors in the Netherlands are not legal - ly required to use any specific payment rail, but the practical effect of EU regulation is that standard euro credit transfers and direct debits must run on SEPA- compliant infrastructure. The SEPA Regulation (as amended by the Instant Payments Regulation) mandates participation in the EPC’s SEPA schemes, ISO 20022 compliance, pan- EU reachability, and instant credit transfer capability for all PSPs offering standard transfers. Retail pay - ment system operators must ensure technical interop - erability with other EU systems. These requirements collectively foreclose the option of substituting a fully proprietary system for standard euro payment instru - ments. PSD2 and the Wft regulate who may provide payment services (requiring a DNB licence) and impose opera - tional and security requirements, but do not prescribe which back-end infrastructure a PSP must use. The forthcoming PSD3/PSR will further open existing rails to non-bank PSPs by granting them access to all EU payment systems on fair terms, including potentially central bank settlement accounts. The regulatory framework expressly permits inno - vation – for example, the SEPA Regulation allows some new payment schemes to request for a tempo - rary three-year exemption for certain interoperability requirements. Overlay services built on top of SEPA rails – such as the pan-European Wero wallet origina - tion from the Dutch iDeal – generally fall outside the SEPA Regulation requirements. Blockchain-based or token-based rails are possible but trigger additional requirements under MiCAR.
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