Dutch banks and insurance companies have dumped large volumes of state bonds issued by southern EU countries and Ireland over the past 12 months, according to research by the Financieele Dagblad.

An analysis of the six biggest financial institutions’ first-half figures show they have reduced their holdings from more than €7bn to €5bn.
Company bonds are proving a popular replacement for the state bonds, but ABN Amro has put more cash into Dutch government bonds, the paper says.
The position of Dutch pension funds is unknown but the health service fund Zorg en Welzijn said earlier it had reduced its position in Spain to zero, the FD pointed out.