THE HAGUE-- The Dutch central bank slapped a multi-million-euro fine on insurer Delta Lloyd on Monday and ordered it to dismiss its chief financial officer for profiting from confidential information.
The DNB fined Delta Lloyd 22.8 million euros ($27.9 million) after it in mid-2012 allegedly used confidential information to cut back on interest rate risk hedges, a week before the DNB announced it was making changes in interest rate calculations on insurance liabilities.
Delta Lloyd "carried out transactions based on confidential information and thereby gained financially," the Amsterdam-based DNB said in a statement.
The DNB imposed a 1.2 million euro fine plus ordered it to pay 21.6 million euros it said Delta Lloyd made as a result.
"The DNB also confirms that it has asked Delta Lloyd to dismiss its chief financial officer," the central bank said.
But Delta Lloyd said it would appeal the fine in court.
Delta Lloyd denied the interest rate risk hedges were reduced for financial gain, saying its "actions were consistent with its risk policy" and that it broke no laws.
"We have no doubt that Delta Lloyd acted at all times in the interests of its stakeholders," the chairman of its supervisory board Jean Frijns said in the same statement.
Delta Lloyd said it would ask Dutch courts to rule both on the fine, as well as the order to let go its chief financial officer, Emiel Roozen, by January 1, 2016.
First established in 1807, Delta Lloyd is one of Netherlands' oldest insurers and employs 5,135 people in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
AFP
