Your savings at a Dutch bank are protected up to €100,000 per person. Most people know that. What fewer people know: that limit applies per banking licence, not per brand name.
ASN Bank, RegioBank and SNS all share the licence of De Volksbank. Hold €50,000 at each and it looks like triple protection. In reality it's one €100,000 protection, and you'd lose €50,000 in a failure.
What the scheme actually covers
The deposit guarantee scheme protects your money in current accounts, savings accounts and term deposits at banks with a European banking licence, up to €100,000 per person per licence. If the bank fails, De Nederlandsche Bank pays out this amount, usually within seven working days, without you needing to do anything.
| Balance | Covered | Uncovered |
|---|---|---|
| €80,000 | €80,000 | €0 |
| €100,000 | €100,000 | €0 |
| €150,000 | €100,000 | €50,000 |
| €250,000 | €100,000 | €150,000 |
| €400,000 | €100,000 | €300,000 |
Above €100,000 you're not automatically out of luck. You share in the bankruptcy proceedings and may recover part of it, but that isn't guaranteed and can take years.
The licence, not the brand
Here's where most confusion arises, and it's precisely why this page exists.
Banks sometimes operate under multiple brand names while running on a single licence behind the scenes. Legally, all those brands count as one bank.
Known examples in the Netherlands:
| Brands | Share the licence of |
|---|---|
| ASN Bank, RegioBank, SNS | De Volksbank |
| ABN AMRO, Moneyou | ABN AMRO Bank |
Save at two brands sharing a licence, and the €100,000 coverage applies to those brands together, not to each separately.
Want to be sure two banks share a licence? DNB's public register shows which licence each institution falls under. That's the only reliable source, since which brands are grouped can change with acquisitions.
Per person, and the doubling effect on a joint account
Coverage isn't per account but per account holder. That works in your favour on a joint account.
| Account holders | Coverage |
|---|---|
| 1 | €100,000 |
| 2 (joint account) | €200,000 |
A couple with €180,000 in a joint account is therefore fully covered: each partner is entitled to €100,000, €200,000 together. Note the condition: you must be a co-account holder, not merely authorised. On an account for a child where a parent is only authorised, that parent doesn't count towards extra coverage.
Spreading across multiple licences
For anyone above €100,000, spreading is the obvious solution. At €350,000 spread across different licences:
| Number of licences | Covered | Uncovered |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | €100,000 | €250,000 |
| 2 | €200,000 | €150,000 |
| 3 | €300,000 | €50,000 |
| 4 | €350,000 | €0 |
Important: these must be different licences, not different brands of the same licence holder. Spreading across ASN and SNS solves nothing; spreading across ING and Rabobank does, since those are two separate licences.
A common rule of thumb to leave room for accrued interest: keep roughly €95,000 per person per licence rather than exactly €100,000.
What spreading costs
Spreading resolves the risk but has a price: you lose the ability to always sit with the bank offering the highest rate.
At a 0.3 percentage point rate gap between banks:
| Amount at a lower-rate bank | Interest missed per year |
|---|---|
| €50,000 | €150 |
| €100,000 | €300 |
| €150,000 | €450 |
That's a real cost, and it's a trade-off between two kinds of risk: interest-rate risk against counterparty risk. For most people the protection outweighs a few hundred euros of missed interest, but that's a personal call, not a fixed rule.
The temporary higher coverage
An exception few people know about, and it can matter at exactly the right moment.
Receive a large temporary amount through a special event, such as selling your home, an inheritance, or a payout, and for three to six months after deposit a higher coverage of €500,000 applies, on top of the regular €100,000.
That's precisely the moment many people temporarily hold a balance far above their normal savings, for instance between selling their old home and buying the new one. That higher coverage bridges that gap without forcing an immediate switch to another bank.
What falls outside the scheme
Four categories often confused with protected savings.
Shares, bonds and investment funds. These aren't covered by the deposit guarantee scheme. At a broker a separate investor compensation scheme applies, with a much lower limit of €20,000 per person per institution. And that only covers the broker itself failing to meet its obligations, not a fall in the value of your investments.
Cryptocurrency. Falls entirely outside both schemes.
Subordinated deposits. A specific product type explicitly excluded, even though the name resembles an ordinary savings account.
Money at a payment institution without a banking licence. Some fintech apps aren't banks but payment or e-money institutions. Those aren't automatically covered by the deposit guarantee scheme, even though the app feels like a bank. Check this specifically with newer savings platforms and apps before moving large amounts there.
How Gylder fits in
Spreading only works if you know your total position per licence, and that's exactly where an overview across multiple accounts proves its worth.
Gylder totals your balances daily across all your accounts, and shows per institution what you hold. That lets you see at a glance whether you're above €100,000 at a given licence, rather than adding it up yourself across separate banking apps and having to remember which brands share a licence.
What this doesn't tell you
Which banks share a licence can change. Acquisitions and mergers alter the structure. Check the current DNB register for the latest picture.
Foreign banks fall under their own national scheme. Within the EU the protection is equivalent to €100,000, but the executing body and exact procedure differ by country.
This isn't advice on where to save. Which banks you choose and how you spread depends on your total wealth, your risk tolerance and your comfort with managing multiple accounts.
Frequently asked questions
How much savings are guaranteed per bank? €100,000 per person per banking licence. On a joint account with two holders, that's €200,000.
What does "per banking licence" mean exactly? Some banks use multiple brand names but share the same licence. ASN Bank, RegioBank and SNS are an example: the €100,000 limit applies to those three together, not to each separately.
Are my investments also covered by the deposit guarantee scheme? No. Investments fall under the investor compensation scheme, with a limit of €20,000 per person per institution, and only if the broker itself fails.
What happens if I temporarily hold more than €100,000 from selling my house? For three to six months after deposit, a higher coverage of €500,000 applies, on top of the regular €100,000.
How do I know if two banks share a licence? Check DNB's public register. That's the only reliable source, since the structure can change with acquisitions.