Netherlands: Embedding the Professional Oath in Daily Life

Earlier this month, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) published a brochure on how firms and employees in the financial industry can bring the Professional Oath to life in their day-to-day operations.

In 2015, the Dutch Financial Supervision Act introduced the Professional Oath, which requires that individuals in the financial sector commit to a set of moral and ethical principles when practicing their profession. The Oath was established to strengthen trust in the financial sector, and is backed by a disciplinary regime if employees violate the principles set out therein.

A 2021 survey by the DNB, encompassing banks, insurers, and payment institutions, revealed that firms were not consistently embedding the principles of the Oath into day-to-day operations. The survey explored how well the Oath principles were adopted by operational management, how they factored into disciplinary matters, and how successful firms were at sustaining awareness of these principles. "One of the findings of the survey was that while institutions go to great lengths to invest the oath-taking ceremony with meaning and lustre, the oath does not seem to feature explicitly in people's everyday work life once the ceremony is done," the DNB writes in the brochure.

The brochure was the outgrowth of a seminar organized by the DNB along with the financial sector and other stakeholders to explore ways in which the Oath could be ingrained into everyday life more effectively. The seminar proceedings culminated in a strategy encompassing five key categories: taking the Oath, dialogue, behavior, nudges, and organization. These suggested actions include:

• Translating the Oath into specific behaviors for specific roles;
• Ensuring that the " work context" — what we would call "culture" — compels employees to act in accordance with the Oath; and
• Adapting the Oath to fit the organization.