A reminder why Human Rights in Finance.EU Exists

At Human Rights in Finance.EU (HRIF.EU), we believe that the financial system must serve people and societies, not the other way around. Financial institutions, regulators, and policymakers have a profound influence on individuals’ lives, often making decisions that can enhance or harm human rights. Our mission is to ensure that human rights are respected, protected, and prioritized in financial regulations, operations, policies, and regulations.

Key Issues on our agenda: eliminate illegal (mass) monitoring, discrimination, account blocking and inefficient reporting on Unusual Transactions

1. Transaction Monitoring Netherlands (TMNL) as an illegal venture

  • TMNL was launched as a collaborative initiative by banks to detect financial crime, but it operated outside legal boundaries.
  • The system processed vast amounts of personal data, including sensitive information, without proper authorization or safeguards.
  • Privacy violations were systemic, with banks misleading the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) about the scope and nature of data processing.
  • Despite clear legal prohibitions (e.g., Article 10 Wwft and GDPR Article 9), regulators like the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and the Ministry of Finance allowed TMNL to continue, prioritizing international reputation over compliance.
  • TMNL’s operations were eventually deemed unsustainable, yet efforts to preserve its framework continued, highlighting a disregard for fundamental rights.

2. Unusual Transaction Reporting

  • The Dutch unusual transaction reporting system is inefficient and legally flawed, resulting in significant privacy breaches.
  • Institutions in the Netherlands should under EU rules be reporting only 45.000 suspicious transactions instead of being obliged to report unusual transactions (of which we have 2 million a year). This creates a dragnet of unusual transactions that harms innocent individuals.
  • The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) misuses collected data for purposes beyond its legal mandate, including linking datasets without transparency.
  • EU regulations clearly define a more limited scope of reporting, yet the Dutch implementation violates these standards, leading to systemic non-compliance.
  • Law enforcement lacks the capacity to act on the reports anyhow, which further undermines the system’s purpose and effectiveness.

What We Do in Practice

HRIF.EU actively works to safeguard human rights in finance and invite stakeholders to do the right thing, through three pillars of action:

  1. Pen:
    • We aim to convince through reasoned arguments, publications, and open dialogue.
    • By crafting compelling analyses, reports, and recommendations, we engage stakeholders and decision-makers to foster change proactively.
  2. Publicity:
    • We raise awareness by sharing insights at conferences, in the media, and through collaborations with advocacy groups, podcasts, radio and television programmes,
    • Public scrutiny is a powerful tool to hold financial institutions and regulators accountable for systemic issues so that is why we use freedom of information requests
  3. Procedure:
    • When persuasion and awareness fail, we pursue litigation to enforce compliance and uphold human rights.
    • Our legal actions focus on setting precedents that protect individuals and challenge harmful financial practices.

Help us: spread the word and donate !

HRIF.EU invites individuals, policymakers, and organizations to help is achieve our objectives. Together, we can ensure that human rights remain at the heart of finance.

Visit our website, follow us on Linkedin and if you appreciate what we do: feel free to donate, so we can invite and convince more regulators, supervisors and financial institutions to respect human rights in their everyday work.