De Volksbank (, lit. 'The People's Bank') is a Dutch retail bank offering financial products to both companies and individuals. Prior to a 2017 restructuring, it was called SNS Bank, which remains its major brand name. It became a subsidiary of SNS Reaal in 1997 when the holding company bought the insurance company Reaal. The bank and its parent were rescued by the Dutch government in 2013 and have been state owned since then. In 2016, SNS Bank was the fourth-largest bank in the Netherlands in terms of total assets.[2]
De Volksbank has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.[3][4]
History
The history of the bank goes back to 1817, when the first savings bank in the Netherlands was established as Nutsspaarbank. The saving bank movement was part of a campaign to encourage individual citizens to save for their future.