Toespraak Laura van Geest: Als afhankelijkheid een keuze wordt

While the speech does not introduce new rules, it signals that Dutch and European regulators are increasingly focused on how financial firms manage external dependencies and build operational resilience. For compliance teams, this reinforces the importance of mapping critical third-party and cross-border dependencies, assessing concentration risks, and ensuring robust contingency planning. Firms should consider how their outsourcing arrangements, cloud strategies, and supply chains could be affected by geopolitical shifts or technological lock-in.

The AFM's stance aligns with broader EU initiatives such as DORA and the push for open strategic autonomy. Actionable steps include reviewing existing risk frameworks against dependency scenarios, enhancing board-level discussions on resilience, and monitoring forthcoming AFM guidance on competition and resilience. No immediate compliance deadlines arise from this speech, but early preparation can yield competitive advantages and reduce regulatory scrutiny.

Compliance leaders should also evaluate whether current governance structures adequately address strategic dependencies and whether they have clear escalation paths for geopolitical disruptions. Overall, the speech is informational but highlights a growing supervisory theme that merits proactive attention.