Financial institutions which want to pay back state capital injections should not use that as an excuse to pay out large bonuses to top staff, central bank president Nout Wellink is quoted as saying by the Financieele Dagblad.

ING, SNS Reaal and Aegon have all said they want to pay back the cash they were given by the Dutch state to bail them out of the credit crisis as soon as possible.
‘If financial institutions can pay back the state support, that is to be celebrated,’ the paper quoted Wellink as saying. ‘But if the reason is to pay out unearned bonuses, that would not be desirable. Governments would be right to test that the decision to pay back support is being done for the right reasons.’
In the Netherlands, the central bank has the right to carry out the checks, a finance ministry spokesman told the paper.