Kingdom of the Netherlands-Netherlands: Financial Sector Assessment Program:

The financial resilience of banks has been strengthened in recent years and banks are benefiting from continuing economic recovery. Broad-based economic recovery is helping to stimulate demand for credit, although credit growth remains slow, and unemployment continues to fall. Housing markets have started to recover since 2013 with prices and transaction volumes picking up. There has been an improvement in the financial position of Dutch banks: cost efficiency has improved and profitability has recovered. The banks' migration to the new Basel III standards is also well under way for capital adequacy and liquidity. Nonetheless, the outlook is challenging with greater competition, a low interest rate environment, and potential pressure on capital buffers from future regulatory changes.