NETHERLANDS - Financial institutions and service providers do too little to tackle fraudulent real estate transactions in the Netherlands, an official analysis of criminal and supervisory investigations has found.
The Dutch Financial Expertise Centre (FEC) - a combined initiative of the Dutch pension regulator DNB, the Authority Financial Markets (AFM), the Public Prosecution Service, the Dutch fraud-squad, the tax office, police and the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) - said in its report the current supervision on integrity is insufficient.
"Parties that are involved in property transactions should look more carefully at the signals of suspect dealings to prevent real estate fraud," the FEC said in a statement.
"More attention needs to be paid to guarding integrity with financial institutions and service providers who are involved in real estate transactions," concluded the FEC's analysis into the dossiers of six existing institutional investors produced the centre's various members," it continued.
The organisation, which was pressured by the Dutch parliament's second chamber into publishing its report, stressed since it was an analysis of a small number of cases, the findings cannot be generalised, despite proving the findings go beyond mere suspicions.
This caution on the integrity of insitutional investors comes in the midst of an investigation into property transactions of the €14.6bn Philips pension fund.
The alleged fraud - uncovered last year - forced Jan Snippe, head of corporate pensions at Philips, to resign as member of the fund's management board. (See earlier story IPE.com: Snippe resigns from Philips scheme's board)
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