Credit control in the Netherlands

Abstract

The gradual removal of controls in the Netherlands, the liberalisation of inter-European trade, the devaluation of the guilder and the international price rise, following the Korean war, have brought to the fore the problem of inflation and external deficit, calling for a new energetic intervention in the field of credit restriction. Thus, the qualitative regulation of credit in force in 1945 bas been replaced by a strict quantitative control for the purpose of sterilising the high liquidity of the Dutch banks and restoring practical efficiency to moderate rises in the bank rate. The present article illustrates origins and features of the new regulations, and their significance for the activity of the banking system on the one hand and for the structural development of the financial market on the other, which has so far been free from control. JEL: E31, E51, E52, F10, G21

Keywords

• Netherlands
• Dutch banks
• trade liberalisation
• inflation
• external deficit
• credit control