Minister talks Zalm with finance regulators

Caretaker finance minister Jan Kees de Jager on Wednesday had talks with financial service regulator AFM chairman Hans Hoogervorst and Dutch central bank top man Nout Wellink on their radically different conclusions about Gerrit Zalm’s time as CFO at the failed DSB bank.

In its report, the Dutch central bank said Zalm had carried out his role ‘carefully’, while the AFM report said he had paid ‘insufficient attention’ to the job.
De Jager was ‘not amused’ by the opposing advice from the investigations by the two financial supervisors when it was published on Monday and was seeking a speedy meeting to discuss why the advice was so contradictory.
According to the FD, it is not clear if the minister will send a written summary of the meeting to parliament.
Zalm was Dutch finance minister for 12 years before joining DSB. He left after one year to over see the merger of ABN Amro and Fortis and is currently CEO at the merged bank.
Zalm said on Wednesday he had no intention of resigning.