Cash payments of more than €3,000 could be banned under plans by the government to crack down on money laundering.

Justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus and finance minister Wopke Hoekstra say the current rules requiring any payment in cash above €10,000 to be notified do not go far enough.

‘We have looked with the police at whether this can be enforced and the police are satisfied,’ Hoekstra told the Radio 1 Journaal. ‘It will genuinely help to tackle organised crime and money laundering.’

The ban will only apply to transactions in shops and businesses and will not cover private sales, including those carried out via online portals such as Marktplaats.

The cabinet is also lobbying at European level to withdraw the €500 note from circulation, as studies show it is almost exclusively used by criminals.

‘If you make a cash payment of €100,000, you usually do it in large notes,’ Hoekstra said. ‘If someone makes a lot of these kinds of payments it’s often a sign of laundering, in the police’s view. That’s why we want to get rid of those notes.’