What happened
- Specific facts/numbers: AFM and De Nederlandsche Bank published a joint news item on October 7, 2026 and an accompanying paper saying Dutch law does not currently allow securities to be issued, held and transferred solely as tokens; under current law, only indirect tokenisation is possible, while firms often rely on hybrid structures with parallel traditional and DLT-based records.
- Institutions involved: The main institutions are the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB); the paper also discusses the role of central securities depositories and references the European Commission’s proposed 28th regime and the EU DLT Pilot Regime.
- Regulatory/technical context: The paper says EU and Dutch rules do not ban DLT, but the Dutch Securities Giro Transfer Act (Wge) and Dutch Civil Code do not provide a basis for direct tokenisation, even though CSDR allows DLT to be used for book-entry registration and dematerialised issuance; the result is legal uncertainty over token records and reduced efficiency from duplicate recordkeeping.
- What to watch next: Watch for a joint follow-up by the Dutch government, supervisors and market participants on whether clarification of existing rules is enough or whether formal legislative amendments are needed; beyond that, no specific legislative timetable was identified.
Why it matters
If Dutch law is not updated, tokenised-securities activity and related market infrastructure may migrate to jurisdictions with clearer legal treatment, reducing the Netherlands’ competitiveness in digital capital markets.
HKMA Relevance
Direct: Another central bank and market regulator have taken a concrete supervisory-policy step in tokenised securities and market infrastructure, an area squarely within HKMA’s remit to monitor for Hong Kong’s own regulatory and payments-market development.