What happened ?
Rechtbank Amsterdam ruled on 11 March 2026 that ING could terminate the bank relationships of a BV and its sole director and shareholder. The company worked in temporary work, green maintenance, groundworks, construction and roadworks. ING had investigated large receipts of €1,011,200.84 and €560,500, payments of €725,589 and €683,956, transfers to Turkish bank accounts, and cash withdrawals of €54,836.70. The company supplied annual accounts, invoices, agreements, declarations, hours records and reports, but ING said the file still did not explain the flows enough to remove integrity concerns. ING notified termination per 23 July 2025 and registered personal data in its Intern Verwijzingsregister for seven years. The claimants asked the court to maintain the banking relationships and remove the IVR registration. The court dismissed the claims and ordered payment of ING's costs of €2,209.
Analysis
The ruling matters because banking access now depends on a file that a regulated bank can understand. The false assumption is that annual accounts or invoices alone will carry the whole story. Under the Wwft, banks must perform client due diligence, understand the purpose and nature of the relationship, and monitor transactions. If required due diligence cannot produce the required result for an existing relationship, termination can follow. DNB's proportionality line remains important: banks should not de-risk mechanically. But proportionality works with evidence. In this case, the court accepted that ING still had substantial unanswered questions after several rounds of information.
Ensure your business is resilient and compliant, explore our governance, risk, and compliance services today!
Governance
Founder control becomes visible in the money trail. Owner withdrawals, private destinations, cash use, subcontractor payments and foreign transfers need a coherent link between ledger, invoice, agreement, hours, correspondence, beneficiary and business purpose. A company can be commercially real and still be weakly documented.
Risk
A bank account is operating infrastructure. Termination can disturb customer receipts, wages, supplier payments, tax payments, rent, insurance debits and working-capital access. Litigation usually starts after the bank has already built a file of questions, deadlines and incomplete answers.
Compliance
The control file should connect each material transaction to customer, supplier, contract, invoice, work performed, payment purpose and beneficiary. For labour-leasing firms, the Wtta admission system from 1 January 2027 adds another layer of chain discipline. Cash and cross-border payments need especially clear documentation.
Daily operational takeaway
Within 72 hours, map the ten largest and least routine money movements and check whether an outsider can understand each route without the founder's memory.
ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:2546 Rechtbank Amsterdam
The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Paolo Maria Pavan. AI was not used to identify sources, build the factual basis, or produce the analytical judgment contained here. AI was used only as a drafting aid. The final English text was personally reviewed, edited, and approved by the author before publication. Any translated versions are AI-generated from the original English text.
