The DSB Bank has admitted it has made mistakes in the past when it comes to mortgage loans. Two of the bank’s executives publically apologised for the bank’s past mistakes on separate tv shows on Thursday evening.

Speaking on Nova, Hans van Goor said ‘With the wisdom we have in 2009, we would not make the same mistakes.’ His colleague Robin Winschoten made a similar apology on the Pauw & Witteman show.
DSB clients were unable to access their money via the bank’s internet site for most of Thursday following a call by Pieter Lakeman, who heads a lobby group of disgruntled DSB clients, to remove their money from the bank. The call was intended to lead to a run on the bank and force it into bankruptcy.
Earlier this week finance minister Wouter Bos described the mortgage sales practices of the DSB bank as ‘totally idiotic’ reports Friday’s Volkskrant.
A parliamentary majority wants him to take action against the bank but Bos has made it clear this is the task of the financial services watchdog AFM which has already fined DSB and is keeping a careful eye on the bank.
The AFM declined to comment on whether it is investigating the possibility that the bank intentionally limited access to its website on Thursday to prevent a bank run, the paper says.
Initially the bank blamed hackers for the disruption to its website.
Meanwhile, despite its ‘outsider’ status, the mainstream banks are now rallying around in support of the DSB, reports the Volkskrant. The central bank and the banking association have described Lakerman’s call for a bank run as ‘not very sensible’, the paper says.
If the DSB collapses, the other banks will be responsible for ‘coughing up’ the money to ensure DSB clients get their savings back under the bank guarantee scheme, the paper points out. On top of this they stand to lose billions of euros from the mortgages they have sold to DSB.