Nicole Stolk: Be prepared to be flexible

Opening speech by Ms Nicole Stolk, Executive Director of Resolution and Internal Operations of the Netherlands Bank, at the seminar "Design and practice of bank resolution", held by the Dutch-Belgium IMF constituency, Amsterdam, 11 October 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

On 11 October 2019 The Dutch-Belgium IMF constituency held a seminar 'Design and practice of bank resolution' in Amsterdam. DNB's resolution director Nicole Stolk opened the seminar with a speech in which she summarized the Dutch experience with bank resolution within the European context. She concluded by pointing out the two challenges for resolution in the near future: engaging with the banks and close cooperation between all parties involved.

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Good morning and welcome to Amsterdam. We are here today in the Presidents' Room. If you look over to the far wall you can see that all the former presidents of De Nederlandsche Bank are watching us. At the top left is our very first President, Paul Iwan Hogguer. In 1814 he was appointed by King Willem the First of the Netherlands to oversee the creation of DNB. He was also mayor of Amsterdam at the same time! As the son of a Swiss banker and a Prussian mother, and with a brother who served as a diplomat at the Portuguese and the Russian courts, he would have appreciated such esteemed international company. As I am sure you do.

One of the main goals of this seminar is to meet each other and to share our experiences. It's good to see such a diverse range of nationalities. Most of you are from countries of the Dutch-Belgium IMF constituency. But we also have with us representatives from other jurisdictions, such as Indonesia, Egypt and Albania. There is also diversity in how you approach resolution. The different resolution regimes may of course reflect specific aspects of a jurisdiction, such as the structure of its banking sector. But each country's approach is also shaped by its history in dealing with a banking crisis. Some jurisdictions are already at an advanced stage in developing a designated resolution function. Others are just getting started. Some, like the Ukraine, have already dealt with resolution cases in the past, while others may have little hands on experience. This seminar is aimed at high-level management, to discuss the more strategic issues. The focus is on how resolution regimes are set up, as well as the guiding principles for resolution. The banking industry operates increasingly on a cross-border basis. This means effective cooperation between regulators is vital.