A bank may be liable if it breaches a specific duty of care and thereby causes loss. A financial loss or an unfavourable decision is not sufficient in itself. You need to examine which service the bank provided, what it should have done in that situation and what difference careful conduct would have made. The duty of care attached to a current account is not the same as the duty that applies to mortgage advice or asset management.
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Written by Onur Arslan, attorney at Arslan Advocaten. Registered in the specialisation register of the Netherlands Bar for employment law and personal injury. Last updated: 17 September 2026.
A good claim therefore starts with defining the issue correctly. Is it about an unjustified account block, excessive lending, a payment order that was not carried out or deficient advice? Sometimes a specific statutory scheme offers a clearer route than a general reliance on the duty of care. Both options must be assessed together.
What does a bank’s duty of care involve?
Banks play an important role in the payment system and generally have more financial knowledge than their private customers. Depending on the service and the circumstances, they may have to gather information, explain things clearly, issue warnings or take measures to protect customers against certain risks.
These obligations may arise from the contract, the law, the general banking conditions and the special position banks hold in society. There are also specific supervisory rules. The content is not identical for every banking relationship. The customer’s expertise, the product, the recognisable risks and the information available can all make a difference.
Nor does a breach of supervisory rules automatically, without further assessment, give you the civil compensation you are seeking. For a specific claim, the applicable standard, your protected interest, the failure to perform and the loss all have to be examined. That makes a targeted analysis necessary.
First establish what role the bank had
| Role of the bank | Examples of relevant questions |
|---|---|
| Payment service provider | Was an order carried out correctly, and how did the bank respond to a specific fraud report |
| Lender | Was your financial capacity examined, and is termination sufficiently justified |
| Adviser | Were your wishes, options and risks examined and properly discussed |
| Asset manager | Did the bank act within the agreed mandate and risk profile |
| Account provider | Were access, blocking and termination assessed with due care |
The same bank brand may have several roles. An employee who opens a current account is not thereby automatically giving personal investment advice. Conversely, the services actually provided may go further than a general product brochure. So collect the order confirmation, the terms and conditions and the specific communications.
The legal name of the other party also matters. The mortgage adviser may be an independent firm and the lender a different company. An error by the adviser is not necessarily an error by the bank. Address your request to the party that had the disputed obligation.
A claim is more than an accusation
For a damages claim it must be clear what the bank did wrong and what consequence that had. Work with a timeline: what information was available and when, what action was not taken and at what moment did the loss arise? Also mention later events that may have increased or reduced the loss.
Then compare the actual situation with the situation had the bank acted with due care. Would the loan have been smaller? Would you not have bought a product? Would a payment have been stopped? Or would you have had time to open another account? That comparison prevents every financial disadvantage from being attributed to the bank indiscriminately.
Sometimes the bank has acted carelessly but there is no demonstrable loss. Sometimes the loss is established but it is uncertain whether different conduct would have prevented it. A legal assessment must honestly identify both possibilities. Proceedings only make sense if the result sought and your position on evidence match.
Duty of care when an account is blocked or terminated
A bank may be required to carry out customer due diligence and, in certain circumstances, to end the relationship. At the same time, it must prepare its decision carefully and follow the applicable contractual and statutory rules. Obligations under the Wwft (the Dutch Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act) are not a blanket licence for every form of blocking or every period the bank chooses.
Examine the specific reason, the questions asked beforehand, your answers and any less drastic measures. With urgent payments it may also be relevant whether the bank explored ways of allowing necessary transactions. That is something different from an unconditional right to unrestricted use during every investigation.
In its judgment of 5 November 2021, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (Hoge Raad) confirmed that the special position of banks in society may, in certain circumstances, also give rise to obligations regarding access to business accounts. The specific product remains important: a current account and a facility for cash deposits are not the same thing.
If a dispute is ongoing, read about the separate steps for a blocked account or termination by the bank. A request for reinstatement may be more urgent than a damages claim that can be quantified later.
Duty of care in cases of fraud and suspicious payments
After fraud, it is understandable that you want to know why the bank did not intervene. Legally, however, what matters is which signals the bank had at the relevant moment and which obligation followed from them. A large payment or a new payee is not automatically proof that the bank should have recognised fraud.
For payments made without your consent, there is a specific statutory refund scheme. That must be examined first. For transfers you confirmed yourself, a duty of care claim may be possible, but it requires specific substantiation of what the bank knew and how it responded.
The rulings of the Appeals Committee (Commissie van Beroep) from 2026 illustrate this distinction. In cases of bank helpdesk fraud, it must therefore be established who carried out the orders. The general word fraud does not yet tell you which obligation the bank has breached.
Duty of care in cases of excessive lending
A lender must examine, within the applicable rules, whether credit can responsibly be granted. The assessment concerns the situation when the credit was taken out or amended. Later payment problems do not automatically prove that the original lending was irresponsible.
Relevant factors include income, existing outgoings, other debts, the standards applied and foreseeable changes. It must also be examined what information you provided yourself and whether the bank had reason to doubt its accuracy or completeness. An application form and the original calculation are often more important than recent statements alone.
Quantifying the loss is then a separate matter. Not every amount paid can simply be reclaimed. Read the specific explanation of excessive lending and the duty of care. In a dispute about rates and charges, the article on unjustified interest and costs may offer the right route instead.
Duty of care in mortgage advice
An adviser must exercise the care of a reasonably competent and reasonably acting professional. That may include investigating your situation, explaining risks and monitoring agreed work. What aftercare is needed depends on the engagement, the product and relevant developments.
A mortgage application that fails does not automatically mean the advice fell short. An adviser generally cannot guarantee acceptance by a lender. However, an insufficient warning about an expiring financing condition, for example, may lead to a claim, depending on the arrangements made and what happened.
In cases of liability of a mortgage adviser, it must also be examined who made the error: the adviser, the bank, or possibly both on different grounds. A careful claim deals with each party’s role separately and prevents responsibilities from becoming blurred.
Duty of care in investment and asset management
With investment advice and asset management, your objectives, financial means, risk appetite and knowledge are relevant. With execution only, you in principle make the investment decisions yourself, while the provider retains other obligations, for example regarding information, order execution and applicable appropriateness tests.
A fall in prices is normally part of investment risk. A claim must therefore go further than showing that the portfolio suffered a loss. Examine, for example, whether the agreed risk profile was exceeded, essential product information was missing or an order was executed incorrectly.
The comparison with careful conduct must be realistic. The fund that performed best with hindsight is not automatically the right benchmark for your loss. The article on investment losses describes how the agreement, the risk profile and the transactions together form a case file.
What information should you request?
Ask for the agreement, the terms and conditions applicable at the time, advice reports and relevant customer data. Make clear which period and which service your request relates to. In a long-standing relationship, several versions of documents may exist; a current brochure says little about an arrangement made years earlier.
Also request relevant correspondence and personal data from records of conversations. A GDPR subject access request can help, but it is not an unlimited right to every internal document. For specific evidence, a different legal route may be needed in proceedings.
Make your own overview of missing documents and why they matter. A targeted request for the creditworthiness calculation for a particular application is easier to assess than a request for every file the bank has ever created. Keep the replies and any limitations.
Your own conduct can affect the outcome
Even where the bank has made an error, your own conduct may be legally relevant. Did you provide correct information, read warnings and ask questions about unclear aspects? After discovering the problem, did you make reasonable efforts to limit further loss? These circumstances may play a role in causation and contributory negligence, among other things.
That does not mean the bank can always hide behind a signature. A duty of care may be intended precisely to protect against certain ill-considered decisions. The protective purpose and the specific facts must be assessed together, without placing all responsibility on one party in advance.
A fictitious example: an adviser warns too late about a deadline, while the customer was aware of earlier written warnings about the same deadline. There may then be both an error and a discussion about how the loss should be apportioned. The outcome is not a standard percentage.
Monitor the duty to complain and the limitation period separately
If performance is defective, Article 6:89 of the Dutch Civil Code may require you to complain within a reasonable time after you discovered, or should reasonably have discovered, the defect. What counts as timely depends on the circumstances. There is no single fixed complaint period that fits every banking case.
In addition, rules on limitation periods apply. For damages claims, knowledge of the loss and of the liable person often plays a role, alongside a longer absolute deadline and possible exceptions. A letter must be legally clear enough if you want it to interrupt the limitation period.
Kifid, the Dutch Financial Services Complaints Tribunal, has its own admissibility requirements and deadlines. Do not assume that a telephone call or an internal complaint safeguards every other deadline. In older cases, have it determined straight away which deadlines are running and what specific action is needed, even if not all of the loss can yet be calculated precisely.
Be careful with a full and final discharge
A settlement can bring peace of mind and certainty, but read which claims it brings to an end. An arrangement may cover not only the current complaint but also future proceedings about the same facts. Make sure the principal sum, costs, interest and any other products are clearly defined.
In Kifid 2026-0149, a complaint about excessive lending was not dealt with again because the parties had already reached a final settlement on the matter. The decision illustrates that an earlier agreement can limit access to a review on the merits.
So do not sign on the assumption that you can simply start again later. Ask for an explanation of unclear clauses and, if necessary, have explicit reservations included. A practical payment is only a good solution if it is also clear which rights you retain or give up.
Make a loss comparison that can be verified
In a duty of care claim, it usually has to be examined what would have happened without the alleged error. That requires more than adding up unfavourable consequences. First describe which other decision you would have made had you received correct information. Would you have borrowed less, chosen a different product, postponed a payment or not entered into an agreement at all? Substantiate why that alternative was available and plausible at the time.
A fictitious example: a customer claims that, had he been warned of a risk, he would have chosen a cheaper alternative. The terms and costs of that alternative at the time are then relevant. A product that only became available years later does not provide a fair comparison. Nor does a favourable price trend that nobody could have predicted make every other choice the right point of reference.
Split your overview of losses into amounts actually paid, costs still expected and items you can only estimate. For each item, state the evidence and the link with the error. Do not quietly leave amounts received back and costs saved out of the comparison. Anyone who claims an amount twice, for example as the full purchase price and also as a price loss on the same investment, makes the case unnecessarily vulnerable.
For a provisional complaint, the calculation does not always have to be final yet. In that case, state which items are still being investigated and why. Do not wait for complete certainty without advice if a deadline is running. A targeted first complaint can be combined with a later substantiated calculation of the loss, but that does not automatically satisfy all requirements for safeguarding deadlines.
Finally, ask which party took the decision in question. An error by an independent adviser and the bank’s processing of that adviser’s application are different acts. Do not involve the bank solely because it is the largest or best-known party, but examine its own obligation and contribution to the loss.
Frequently asked questions about banks’ duty of care
Is the bank liable as soon as it admits an error?
Not automatically for every amount claimed. It must be established which loss was caused by that error and which costs are legally eligible for compensation. An admission can, however, significantly change your position on evidence.
Can I hold a bank liable without a lawyer?
You can submit a complaint or request yourself. Whether a lawyer is mandatory in court proceedings depends, among other things, on the court and the claim. With complex losses or short deadlines, a legal assessment beforehand can be important.
Can a business owner rely on the duty of care?
Yes, duties of care can also apply in business relationships. The content and scope of protection differ depending on the service, expertise and circumstances. Consumer rules and consumer routes cannot simply be applied to every business.
Is Kifid the same as the AFM?
No. Kifid deals with certain individual financial complaints. The AFM (the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets) is a supervisory authority and has a different task. A report to the supervisor does not automatically lead to a decision on your personal compensation.
Do I have to cancel all my bank products during a dispute?
That does not follow from the existence of a complaint. Assess the practical consequences and arrangements before you end any products. Nor does a pending objection automatically suspend your own payment obligations. If in doubt, a specific temporary arrangement is often important.
What can Arslan Advocaten do for me?
Arslan Advocaten can assess the specific obligation, your position on evidence, the loss and possible proceedings. The firm can then help with a complaint, a formal notice of liability or a court step. Send the agreement, correspondence and a short timeline; the approach and costs are discussed in advance.
Sources and legal basis
- Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 5 November 2021, on banks’ duty of care and access to accounts.
- Kifid 2024-0918 on mortgage advice and a financing condition.
- Kifid 2026-0119 on execution only and appropriateness.
- Kifid 2026-0149 on a previously reached settlement.
Sources checked on 16 September 2026. The contractual basis, applicable supervisory rules and civil law provisions must be linked to the specific financial service.
