What happened
- Specific facts/numbers: DNB and the AFM published a joint exploration on October 7, 2026 saying Dutch law currently provides no basis for securities issued, held and transferred solely as tokens, warning the Netherlands could fall behind in digital financial markets if the framework is not updated.
- Institutions involved: The main institutions are De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), which jointly issued the paper on securities tokenisation in the Netherlands.
- Regulatory/technical context: The paper says DLT can already be used under EU rules such as CSDR for recording securities and direct issuance in dematerialised form, but Dutch national law — including the Wet giraal effectenverkeer and the Civil Code — does not currently permit direct issuance of securities that exist only as tokens.
- What to watch next: Watch for whether the Dutch government or lawmakers propose amendments to the national legal framework for tokenised securities; no specific next milestone was identified in the material reviewed.
Why it matters
The story highlights that tokenisation adoption may now hinge less on technology and more on whether national securities law is updated to recognize natively digital instruments.
HKMA Relevance
Direct: Another central bank and market regulator have taken a concrete policy step in payments/capital-markets-adjacent digital asset regulation by jointly calling for legal changes to support tokenised securities, a development the HKMA would plausibly monitor in its own work on tokenisation and market infrastructure.