Santander gave Dutch customers irresponsible loans, again fined

This article was last updated on July 17, 2024

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Santander gave Dutch customers irresponsible loans, again fined

The Spanish bank Santander has been fined again for providing irresponsible loans to Dutch consumers. Supervisory Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) discovered, based on a sample of ten files from 2021, that the bank was wrong in five cases.

Dutch people can turn to Santander for a loan for, for example, a car, a renovation or home furnishings. It supplied the Spanish bank in 2021 a turnover of 94 million euros on the Dutch consumer market.

Providing loans is subject to conditions. For example, banks are not allowed to lend more money than a household can handle. “A loan that is too high can leave consumers with too little money to pay their fixed costs of living,” says Jos Heuvelman, director of AFM.

10,000 euros too much

And the bank took exactly that risk in 2021, the supervisor concluded based on the sample. For example, in October a single parent borrowed 10,000 euros from Santander, while according to the AFM no credit would have been justified given the family’s financial situation.

The regulator imposes a fine of 3.7 million euros. That amount was higher because Santander was also reprimanded in 2019 for so-called excessive lending in the Netherlands. Then the bank had to pay 1.1 million euros.

Santander says it has cooperated with the investigation. The bank indicates that it is continuously improving its internal controls and is confident that it now complies with the rules. From the fine decision it also appears that the bank has compensated some of the potentially injured consumers.