Several Dutch banks analyze and use payment data from customers for advertising purposes, de Volkskrant writes Wednesday after an inventory round.
At the beginning of June it appeared that ING wanted to show offers to customers based on their payment transactions. On Wednesday, the Dutch privacy watchdog, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), informed the Dutch Banking Association (NVB) that banks are not allowed to simply analyze customers’ payment transactions.
But the Volkskrant report shows that banks have been doing this for some time. Rabobank processes personal data, including payment data, for marketing purposes. ABN Amro informs the newspaper that it can also use payment data “to promote its own products and services that can help the customer”.
De Volksbank says it only uses this type of data to protect the “financial resilience” of customers.
NVB does not entirely agree with the regulator
Under privacy legislation, transactions may only be processed if it concerns data that is required to use a payment account. If customers are clearly asked for permission beforehand, an exception can be made.
AP spokesman Pauline Gras told NU.nl on Wednesday that it is “quite a bit” if banks analyze customer data without permission. She also said that privacy rules regarding transaction data apply to all banks: “If parties do not change their behavior, the AP can act.”
In a response to the letter from the regulator, the NVB announced that the AP’s conclusion was too short. “What the AP is doing now is to fill in the law by indicating in advance that the use (of payment data for analysis, ed.) Is in their eyes ‘likely’ incompatible,” spokesman Jelle Wijkstra told NU.nl. “In our eyes, you cannot say that in a general way on the basis of the law.”
