There is no evidence that Dutch banks are being tough on small firms by transferring them too quickly into restructuring programmes, the financial services regulator AFM said on Thursday.

The AFM probe has found ‘no pattern of disadvantaging clients’, the Financieele Dagblad quotes the AFM’s Harman Korte as saying. However, banks should improve their information provision to clients about how the restructuring system works.

‘They have promised to make changes and we are going to monitor if that happens,’ he said.

The investigation was started six months ago after mounting criticism of the way banks – ABN Amro, Rabobank, ING and Deutsche Bank Nederland – were using their restructuring provisions.

The aim is to restore the financial health of companies which have run into trouble. If that fails, the banks then stop providing credit and have the firms wound up.

Some people claimed the banks deliberately placed companies in their restructuring units and forced them into bankruptcy. But this is not the case, the AFM probe found.