The Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB Bank) is a Dutch specialist financial institution that provides financing to water boards and the wider Dutch public sector which includes among others municipalities, drinking water companies, healthcare institutions and housing associations. The bank also finances public private partnerships and renewable energy projects. It is a Local Government Funding Agency owned by the Dutch Water boards, Dutch government and provinces. It has been using the trading name NWB Bank since 2009.
Although a registered bank, it does not provide any services to individuals or companies and focuses solely on the financing of the Dutch (semi-)public sector. NWB has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.[1][2]
History
Starting in the 1950s, the water board union regularly lent money to the individual Water Boards. However, the union was not well equipped to handle the banking and lending activities and on 19 December 1952 it decided to set up a separate water board bank to handle this task. The bank would raise risk less capital from the water boards and later other government organisations and lend this out to the water boards as required. The main aim was to provide the cheapest possible source of funding for the government entities.