Restart monitoring by 2026? HRIF.EU launches action week to prevent repeat illegality

The new monitoring bullet is through the church?

On May 14, 2025 the cabinet announced that a new pilot for joint transaction monitoring will start in 2026, in cooperation with De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), FIU-Nederland, the Dutch Banking Association (NVB) and investigative agencies. But while the Ministry of Finance speeds up these plans, a crucial question remains unanswered: how could DNB tolerate for years a previous pilot (2021-2024), in which five major banks unauthorizedly processed billions of payment transactions in violation of the AVG and the Wwft?

A tainted past in which Treasury and DNB tolerated massive AVG violations

Between 2021 and 2024, ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Triodos and Volksbank worked together under Transaction Monitoring Netherlands (TMNL), an initiative that processed data of an estimated 21 million account holders and 10 to 14 billion transactions without legal basis. This "unprecedented scale of data sharing" - as the Council of State called it - violated not only the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act (Wwft), but also fundamental privacy rights under the AVG. A legal opinion by law firm Prakken d'Oliveira even argues that the banks may have acted criminally (see the thick disciplinary complaint file here for all the details.)

Despite these serious violations, DNB remained conspicuously silent and refused to take enforcement action, even after repeated requests and lawsuits from HRIF.EU. In the end, we ourselves the dragnet silent via foreign action. But we remain curious as to why DNB will not enforce the money laundering law against the five banks involved.

So since April 2024, we as HRIF.EU have been pushing the Woo button tremendously hard to get even the beginnings of information about DNB's role. DNB clearly does not want to come clean. It systematically withholds information about its own role in both Woo requests and the lawsuits that were and are ongoing.

DNB refuses disclosure in violation of its own Woo instruction!

In refusing disclosure, DNB uses such implausible arguments that HRIF.EU in January 2025 the Woo instruction of DNB itself requested. And what turns out: DNB just doesn't even comply with its own instruction. So we took that to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal for review.

Furthermore, we saw in a evaluation paper on Woo requests back that meanwhile the WOO handlers have started painting themselves, without the substantive staff having looked at it. Because... that's nice and efficient. Read along.

Appeals and injunctive relief

As the cabinet announces a new pilot, the question arises: has DNB learned from the past? Without openness about its role in tolerating banks' previous unauthorized outsourcing of transaction monitoring, there is a risk of a repeat performance.

HRIF.EU therefore adopted on May 21, 2025 This urgent request (case number: AMS 25 / 3132 WOO) filed with the Amsterdam District Court to force DNB to release crucial documents, including internal legal opinions and interview reports. These documents - such as DNB executives' talking points and their records of consultations with the Personal Data Authority - are essential to understanding how DNB's oversight has failed and why there is so little concern about the General Data Protection Regulation.

'Action week at HRIF.EU, a new move every day'

Simon Lelieveldt, president of HRIF.EU on the situation that has now arisen:

"It is remarkable that the Ministry, after we deployed the criminalization of TMNL to end this, actually deadpan in a government document says just start those criminal conducts all over again. Because nothing will have changed to Section 10 Wwft before 2026 and the exact rules under which monitoring is allowed under EU rules have not been crystallized either. So we see another situation where Finance enthusiastically takes the reigns to allow banks to anticipate the existence of a legal basis, in violation of the AVG.

It goes without saying that we as HRIF.EU will go to extremes to prevent this plan from further implementation. That is why this week is action week at HRIF.EU. We have foreseen this ongoing monitoring movement and every day now we are taking another step towards stopping this unfortunate intention of the government. This Monday that was a room letter, yesterday a new Woo petition, today the preliminary injunction, tomorrow an appeal case to get AP to enforce and for the Friday surprise we still have two options to choose from. But clearly we are little enamored with the lack of respect by the Treasury Department and the mob of anti-money laundering policymakers for basic principles and fundamental rights in the rule of law."