Exemption from the authorisation requirement

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Anyone wishing to provide insurance services on a commercial basis in the Netherlands must either hold the appropriate authorisation issued by DNB or be exempted from the authorisation requirement. Small non-life insurers and small funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers are exempt from the licensing requirement for limit-risk insurers (Basic insurers) provided they meet the conditions of the exemption. 1

Published: 26 June 2017

Latest update: 18 March 2026

Specific small insurers may be exempted from our supervision and therefore do not need authorisation to provide their insurance services. This only applies to small funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers and small non-life insurers. The latter can only apply for exemption if they do not provide insurance services in any of the following segments.

Motor vehicle liability

Road transport liability

Aircraft liability

Liability for ships

General liability

Credit risks

Suretyship

Conditions for exemption

A small non-life insurer or a small funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurer may be exempted from the authorisation requirement  for basic insurers if it at least meets all of the following requirements.

Gross annual premium income does not exceed EUR 2,200,000.

Technical provisions do not exceed EUR 10,700,000.

If the insurer forms part of a group, the group's total technical provisions may not exceed EUR 26,600,000 and no other group companies fall under the scope of the Solvency II regime.

Reinsurance activities do not exceed EUR 600,000 in gross premium income or EUR 2,700,000 in technical provisions, or constitute more than 10% of gross premium income or technical provisions.

The company may not carry out any other activities, except trading activities arising from its non-life or funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurance business and activities in the context of life or non-life reinsurance.

The following additional conditions apply to non-life insurers:

they may not effect insurance providing cover in excess of EUR 14,000 per beneficiary per potential claim;

they may not provide war insurance cover.

The following additional condition applies to funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers:

they may not effect insurance providing cover in excess of EUR 14,000 per death.

Requirements and prohibitions remaining in force under licensing exemption

Small non-life and small funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers that meet the applicable conditions are exempt from the prohibition to provide insurance services without holding authorisation issued by DNB. Exempted insurers remain subject to the rule that their legal form must be a public limited company, mutual insurance association or European company. Furthermore, their exemption does not include:

the prohibition to invite repayable funds;

the prohibition to act as a default or guarantee fund;

the prohibition to use the word "bank"

The exemption from DNB's supervision does not automatically imply exemption from supervision by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). If your insurance company wishes to provide consultancy or intermediation services, it needs authorisation from the AFM, unless it is exempt from the authorisation requirement. Please refer to the AFM's website for more information.

Exceedance of Exemption Criteria

The exemption ceases to apply if the insurer exceeds any of the limits stated in the first four requirements in three consecutive years. Conversely, insurers who lose their exempt status must first meet these conditions for three consecutive years before they can apply for exemption again. Non-life and funeral expenses and benefits in kind insurers must notify us of any changes that could affect their exempt status.

Foot notes

[1] Section 2:48 of the Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht – Wft), read in conjunction with Sections 1e and 1f of the Exemption Regulation under the Wft (Vrijstellingsregeling Wft).

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