The Dutch central financial institution (DNB) apologized on Friday for the establishment’s involvement within the Nineteenth-century slave commerce. The apology got here at a ceremony marking the Dutch abolishment of slavery.
“On behalf of DNB, I apologize right this moment to all individuals who by the non-public selections of my predecessors had been diminished to the colour of their pores and skin,” Klaas Knot, the central financial institution governor, stated in a speech on the occasion.
DNB’s apology got here after an investigation printed in February revealed early non-public buyers of the financial institution both owned or financed plantations in abroad colonies. Others traded in staple crops produced on plantations within the Caribbean and South America — corresponding to sugar, espresso, cotton and tobacco.
The investigation additionally revealed that financial institution administrators advocated in opposition to the abolishment of slavery within the Netherlands.
The financial institution acknowledged that it had participated in slavery from 1814 to 1863. As well as, DNB admitted to paying compensation to half of its administrators in addition to plantation house owners when slavery was lastly abolished within the nation.
Knot introduced on the occasion a sequence of measures to extend variety and inclusion in its personal ranks. DNB additionally promised to commit €10 million ($10.4 million) within the subsequent 10 years to initiatives geared toward mitigating “modern unfavorable results of Nineteenth-century slavery.”
Longstanding Dutch establishments have been on a marketing campaign to grapple with its connection to slaveryand colonization in several components of the world. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema apologized final 12 months for the Dutch capital’s function within the slave commerce. In April, Dutch financial institution ABN Amro additionally admitted to the involvement of its predecessors in plantation slavery.
The Dutch West India Firm traded some 600,000 slaves, based on Dutch state knowledge. The Netherlands was concerned in slavery from the seventeenth century till it was abolished in 1863.
asw/sms (Reuters, AP, DPA)