meta_id 3338303

On July 8, 2026, the Netherlands enacted the Implementation Act on Listings and Benchmarks (Implementatiewet noteringen en benchmarks), which amends the Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht) to implement three European Union directives and regulations. The law transposes Directive (EU) 2024/2811, Regulation (EU) 2024/2809, and Regulation (EU) 2025/914 into Dutch law. The amendments introduce several key changes to Dutch financial market regulation. The Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten) gains enhanced powers to verify that investment firms have established organizational arrangements ensuring that issuer-financed investment research complies with the EU Code of Conduct for Issuer-Financed Research. The authority may suspend distribution of non-compliant research through directive orders. The law establishes a new category of "SME growth markets" (mkb-groeimarkten)—multilateral trading facilities or segments thereof registered as such—designed to make public capital markets more attractive to small and medium-sized enterprises and facilitate their access to capital. Market operators may now register segments of multilateral trading facilities as SME growth markets subject to specific governance and transparency requirements. The amendments also expand the authority's enforcement powers regarding market abuse violations, permitting it to impose trading bans for up to ten years in cases of repeated violations of Articles 14 or 15 of the Market Abuse Regulation. For offerings exempt from prospectus requirements, issuers must now prepare and distribute an information document complying with specified content standards. Additionally, issuers must submit issuer-financed investment research to the Authority for the Financial Markets, confirming compliance with the EU Code of Conduct. The law repeals Section 5.3.5 of the Financial Supervision Act and modifies related annexes accordingly. The law enters into force on a date to be determined by royal decree, which may vary for different provisions.