Dutch portfolio investments total nearly €3,500 billion

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Dutch firms, institutions and households collectively held nearly €3,500 billion worth of securities as at year-end 2024. This is according to new figures DNB today released for the first time. From now on, DNB charts the securities holdings of the overall Dutch economy.

Published: 17 March 2025

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The new statistics show, for each month, the securities holdings of different sectors, such as non-financial corporations, banks, other financial institutions, institutional investors and households.

Source: DNB statistics

At De Nederlandsche Bank, we independently compile statistics on the Dutch financial sector and economy. This article is based on these statistics. More information on our statistics and all dashboards can be found on our Statistics homepage.

Further breakdowns are provided by security type: listed shares, investment fund shares and debt securities. Information is also available on the geography of the party issuing the securities. This creates an overall picture of Dutch securities holdings.

Lion’s share of investments is in debt securities

As at year-end 2024, most of the assets of Dutch firms, institutions and households were invested in debt securities, i.e. bonds. This category accounts for more than €1,383 billion.

Some €1,123 billion was invested in investment fund shares, while nearly €980 billion was invested in listed equities. This brings total Dutch securities holdings to €3,487 billion, equivalent to 308% of Dutch gross domestic product. This is a relatively high percentage compared to many other euro area countries, in part because of the substantial investments of Dutch pension funds.

Institutional investors – investment funds, insurers and pension funds – hold the most securities, over 68% of the total. Banks (more than 9%) and other financial institutions (just below 11%) also have sizeable investments.

Dutch investments are most prominent, except listed shares

Of the €3,487 billion, €1,338 billion (38%) was invested in securities issued by institutions based in the Netherlands alone. Some €800 billion (23%) concerns investments in securities issued in other euro area countries, while €1,349 billion (39%) was invested in securities issued outside the euro area.

The picture for listed shares looks remarkably different: almost three quarters (74%) are held in non-euro area firms. Most of these investments are in US firms, including big tech companies such as NVIDIA, Apple and Microsoft. 

How are these statistics compiled?

Securities statistics are produced based on the reports submitted by financial institutions from various Dutch sectors. For each sector, we apply a lower limit for inclusion in the population, without extrapolating for institutions that do not report. As a result, the data differ from other macroeconomic statistics produced by DNB and Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

We treat some data confidentially to safeguard the anonymity of reporting institutions from different sectors. As a result, some breakdowns do not present any figures.

Specific details of the various statistics can be found in the explanatory notes to the tables.

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