European CFOs must adjust as the region’s biggest pension buyer of long-dated debt cuts back.
This article appears in the September 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
The Netherlands pension system is beginning to reduce one of Europe’s most reliable sources of demand for long-dated debt as a broad regulatory shift changes how Dutch pension funds manage their assets and liabilities. ING Groep NV estimates that nearly €600 billion ($699 billion) of assets have already been affected by the change, with more than €900 billion expected to follow early next year.
Under the old defined-benefit pension system, Dutch funds were required to hedge the interest-rate sensitivity of long-term pension liabilities by using long-dated bonds and swaps to match assets with payments extending decades into the future. Under the new defined-contribution model, which became law in 2023, that liability matching requirement has been significantly reduced, allowing funds to carry less duration and scale back their long-term hedges, resulting in less structural demand for the longest-dated debt and swaps.
For European CFOs, this could mean a higher premium for 20-, 30- and 50-year borrowing as companies and governments compete for a smaller pool of long-duration investors.
The change “should reduce structural demand for long-end duration assets and support curve steepeners over the long-term horizon,” wrote Sara Adjir, senior vice president and portfolio manager, and Jeroen van Bezooijen, account manager, at Pacific Investment Management Co., in a research note. They expect the impact will be mostly concentrated in 50-year swaps, but will also be felt in the demand for 20- and 30-year euro swaps and government bonds, including German and Dutch debt.
Deadlines
The Netherlands runs Europe’s largest pension system, with roughly €1.6 trillion in assets, and every fund must complete the switch by January 2028. Dutch pensions have long dominated the market for European long-dated debt, holding around €88 billion of interest-rate swaps maturing beyond 25 years at the end of last year, roughly a quarter of the total.
The first major wave of the transition came on Jan. 1, when 24 funds converted, among them the healthcare scheme PFZW and the metals scheme PMT, with an estimated €550 billion to €600 billion of pension assets between them. Analysis by the Netherlands central bank shows that Dutch pensions bought almost €34 billion net of swaps maturing inside 25 years while selling more than €12 billion of longer-dated ones.
The bigger test, however, comes when more than €900 billion of pension assets is scheduled to convert on Jan. 1, with the Dutch civil service scheme ABP accounting for about €530 billion of that.
The shift does not mean long-dated Dutch debt is suddenly becoming illiquid or even hard to sell: “Overall, we still see strong demand for our 30-year bond. Remember, we are AAA,” said Saskia van Dun, director of the Dutch State Treasury Agency.
Sovereign Issuers Adjust
Data indicates that sovereign borrowers are already adjusting to the change.
The share of Netherlands government bonds sold at maturities beyond 10 years fell from 42% at the start of 2025 to 31% by the third quarter, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which calls the constraint on long tenors structural. The OECD expects eurozone debt agencies to sell a record €1.35 trillion of medium- and long-term bonds this year into that thinner pool of demand.
For European finance chiefs, however, times are changing. For two decades, long-dated bond demand was unusually deep and predictable. As it recedes, the shifting cost of locking in 20 or 30 years of funding could become a live question.
Thomas Monteiro is a contributing writer based in Spain.
KNVB invites associations and confederations to a summit to discuss the overhaul of FIFA and how it runs football.
Published On 30 Aug 202630 Aug 2026
FIFA president Gianni Infantino must be replaced by 2027, along with an overhaul of football’s global governing body, the Dutch football association (KNVB) has said.
The KNVB, one of FIFA’s founding members in 1904, issued a scathing statement on Sunday, saying it had lost confidence in Infantino and wanted to reshape the body rather than just change leadership at the top.
The Dutch body wants to host an international summit in Amsterdam and has invited football associations and confederations from around the world to participate.
Infantino is expected to run for re-election to the FIFA presidency in March, but world regional football bodies have considered a vote of no confidence after his aborted proposal to sell a stake in FIFA events like the World Cup to private equity investors.
“The KNVB no longer has confidence in the leadership of FIFA President Gianni Infantino. We believe FIFA needs new leadership from 2027 onwards,” it said in the statement.
“But a new president alone is not enough. The way FIFA is governed must change as well.
“The KNVB supported Infantino in the most recent presidential election. That support was never unconditional.”
The KNVB proposed an “International Summit on the Future of FIFA”, emphasising it should determine “what kind of FIFA we want” before identifying new leadership.
“We see too much power concentrated around the FIFA president and insufficient separation between the President and the FIFA administration,” they added.
FIFA did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for a comment on KNVB’s statement and proposed plans for a summit.
Calls to revamp FIFA’s power structure
Among KNVB’s key demands was a revamp of the decision-making process in the organisation. It called for FIFA’s congress to take the call on key decisions under the governance and supervision of its council.
It proposed a shift of power, whereby the organisation’s secretary-general leads and the president plays the role of representing FIFA globally.
The Dutch body outlined three reform priorities: better governance with stronger checks and balances, putting human rights and sustainability at the heart of decision-making and stronger international cooperation.
It also wants FIFA to work towards reinvesting up to 90 percent of its distributable revenue in football development.
Infantino said last week it was FIFA’s job to close the gap between its wealthy members and those that have few financial resources.
“This should not be a European plan for the rest of the world,” the KNVB said.
“We want to develop this new direction together with FIFA’s 211 Member Associations and the confederations from all parts of the world.”
The KNVB is part of UEFA, which asked a United States federal court for permission to obtain testimony and documents from FIFA entities in Florida for use in a planned criminal complaint in Switzerland against Infantino.
Dutch group Christians for Israel is taking the government to court in the Netherlands over its plans to introduce a ban on importing goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights.
The ban, which was announced in July, is due to take effect on September 22 and will run for three years. It bars importing, buying and selling goods produced in Israeli settlements, as well as intermediary services and any attempt to circumvent the rules.
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But the Israel Product Centre (IPC), part of Christians for Israel (CvI), a Dutch evangelical organisation which a recent study found has donated about $300,000 to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, has responded by filing summary proceedings against the state, with the hearing due today.
Here’s what we know about this case.
What is the case about?
The IPC has issued summary proceedings against the Dutch state, seeking to block the July decree.
The IPC argues the measure is “one-sided” and that the window it now has to clear its existing stock – some 20,000 bottles of wine – is too short.
It is also arguing that a national ban conflicts with the European Union’s principle of free movement of goods.
A verdict is not expected for about two weeks.
How has this case come about?
EU rules have long required goods from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank to be labelled by their origin – Palestine – rather than as “product of Israel”, but the bloc has not placed an outright ban on trading with Israeli settlements. That remains up to individual countries.
In February 2020, the Dutch advocacy group DocP urged consumers to file complaints with the Dutch food safety authority, NVWA, if they found wine and Dead Sea cosmetics had been mislabelled.
Following complaints, the IPC changed its labelling to “product uit een Israelisch dorp in Judea & Samaria [product from an Israeli village in Judea and Samaria],” which it argued accurately reflected the exact geographical and administrative reality of the origins of the products without deceiving the buyer. Judea and Samaria is the biblical name used by the Israeli government to refer to the West Bank. DocP argued this fell short of the requirement to label products correctly, and continued its campaign.
In 2021, the NVWA agreed and fined the IPC 2,100 euros (about $2,500) for mislabelling goods.
Then, in July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible”.
This shifted the legal argument beyond mere consumer labelling, with the court saying countries should take steps to prevent trade or investment relations which help to maintain the unlawful presence of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories.
The lower house of the Dutch parliament acted on that in September 2025, proposing an import ban.
The national decree against importing goods from Israeli settlements was made in July this year.
Does Christians for Israel describe the West Bank as ‘Israel’?
CvI describes the West Bank as a “disputed territory” rather than accepting the international legal description of it as “occupied Palestinian territory”.
It says it believes that Israel has strong claims to sovereignty there and that Jews have a right to live there.
The vocabulary matters in a legal sense, as “disputed territory” is not the same as “annexed territory”, therefore, the legal apparatus which would make settlement trade unlawful doesn’t straightforwardly apply.
The group’s stated reasons for funding projects there, it says on its website, are rooted in the Bible; it cites Ezekiel 47:21-23: “Peace for the Jewish people and resident foreigners inheriting alongside the tribes of Israel.”
However, the ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion is clear that the Fourth Geneva Convention’s Article 49(6) and successive Security Council resolutions treat the territories as occupied and the settlements as unlawful.
(Al Jazeera)
How have other Christian organisations in the West responded to trade with settlements?
Western churches are split on the issue, with CvI sitting at one end of the spectrum.
Mainline Protestants, including the Presbyterian Church in the United States, have divested shareholdings in Caterpillar, HP and Motorola Solutions as early as 2014, and from Israeli bonds in 2024. The United Methodist Church has opposed Israeli settlements since 1996 and sold its Israeli bond holdings last August.
The World Council of Churches called for sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in 2025, divestment and an arms embargo.
The Vatican calls settlements an obstacle to peace but has avoided divestment so far.
Christian Zionist bodies, however, including Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, send funding for settlements and fight against boycotts.
How significant is this ban?
It is significant considering that the Netherlands is one of only four EU countries currently imposing a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
Trade from illegal settlements to the EU is estimated to be worth up to $400m per year.
The Netherlands is also a big market for the illegal settlements; a recent investigation by legal advocacy group Global Echo, which analysed thousands of shipments from Israeli settlements between 2017 and 2026, shows that within the EU, the Dutch market is the largest importer of goods from illegal settlements, with about 30 percent destined for or passing through the country.
Which European countries have banned products from West Bank settlements?
Spain has banned all imports of products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, since September 2025. The decree also enforces an embargo on defence exports and dual-use technology to Israel, bans ships carrying military fuel for Israel from Spanish ports, and restricts advertising for services or goods linked to Israeli settlements.
Ireland’s parliament approved the text of its Israeli Settlements (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill in May and the bill was signed into law in July. It covers all goods produced in Israeli settlements, but excludes services.
Belgium’s federal government approved a draft royal decree in July introducing a specific regime for goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The precise details of the new law will be determined by the government in due course.
Slovenia imposed restrictions on imports from Israeli settlements under its previous government, but the new conservative government reversed them in June 2026.
The EU as a bloc remains deadlocked over whether a ban counts as foreign policy requiring unanimity or trade policy needing only a qualified majority, with ministers not meeting again in a decision-making format until October.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar last year described the push by some European governments to implement the ICJ advisory opinion as “shameful”.
Which European countries still allow trade with West Bank settlements?
Nearly all of them.
Outside the three European Union states which still have bans in place, settlement goods can be sold legally everywhere, including in most of the EU.
At a July 2026 meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, which addressed trade from Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, Germany, Austria, Czechia and Hungary were opposed to an EU-wide ban.
Beyond the EU, the United Kingdom does not forbid trade with illegal Israeli settlements, although new Prime Minister Andy Burnham is reportedly considering a ban. In a recent parliamentary briefing, Amnesty International called on the UK government to implement a ban.
It said: “The argument for a UK ban on trade with settlements is clear. The UK government itself accepts it should take stronger action in response to settlement expansion and annexation. The International Court of Justice has directed states not to trade with Israel in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory; and there is precedent in UK law and policy to not trade with illegally occupied lands, ie Crimea and other illegally occupied parts of Ukraine.”
AVROTROS says escalating international conflicts are undermining the event’s neutrality and fuelling divisions.
Published On 24 Aug 202624 Aug 2026
The public broadcaster in the Netherlands has announced it will not participate in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest because the event can “no longer be considered neutral” due to ongoing divisions over the war in Gaza.
“It is undeniable that international conflicts are increasingly affecting the Contest, undermining its neutral character. The Eurovision Song Contest has therefore become a platform for division,” said Taco Zimmerman, Director-General of AVROTROS, in a statement on Monday.
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The widely-watched show has recently faced a series of boycotts over Israel’s participation. Organisers announced earlier this month that they would exclude any country involved in an armed conflict from hosting the competition.
“However, the recently announced changes… do not provide sufficient confidence that the independent and neutral character of the Eurovision Song Contest has been restored,” the AVROTROS statement added.
Israel finished second in the competition – the world’s largest live televised music event – in both 2025 and 2026.
Next year’s Eurovision is due to be held in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Burgas, after Bulgarian singer Darina Yotova, known as Dara, won this year’s contest in Vienna, Austria, with her catchy floor-filler ‘Bangaranga’. The contest on May 15 will be the first time the Balkan nation has hosted.
Since its launch in 1955, Eurovision has become the ultimate pop platform, catapulting Swedish icons ABBA to worldwide fame, while also boosting the careers of artists such as Celine Dion, Cliff Richard and Olivia Newton-John.
However, this year’s competition pulled in 131 million viewers, 35 million fewer than last year, after five countries boycotted over Israel’s participation. The Netherlands, Iceland, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia all pulled out, with the latter three refusing to broadcast the show at all.
Netherlands international Memphis Depay has defended the release of his new music video showing Corinthians’ headquarters in flames as “just art” – days after a contract row with the Brazilian club.
But Depay has now come under scrutiny for releasing the controversial music video for his track ‘Don’t Panic’.
It was released just 24 hours after the 32-year-old helped Corinthians reach the quarter-final of the Copa Libertadores, and appears to contain references to his recent disputes with the club, showing him watching their administrative center Parque Sao Jorge in flames.
In the song, Depay does not name who he is referring to, but mentions “rivals” and sings: “I know a vice-president who is now my enemy.”
Corinthians fans are currently protesting against the club’s ownership amid growing financial and governance issues and Depay moved to dampen any potential backlash against the video before further protests, external by saying it was filmed “months ago”.
“I hope its a peaceful protest where people can express what they think calmly. About my music, I insist it’s just art,” he said on social media, external.
Referencing to the club’s headquarters’ being in flames, the Dutchman added he was “fully against any type of violence of all kind”.
