De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) is setting up a fund together with the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds ‘to contribute to a reduction of the consequences of transatlantic slavery’. That reports DB Tuesday. The central bank will release ten million euros over the next ten years, which will be distributed under the supervision of the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund.
Last year on 1 July during Keti Koti, the day on which the abolition of slavery is celebrated and commemorated, DNB director Klaas Knot apologized for the slavery past of the more than two hundred year old institution. Through its founders and directors, DNB was deeply entwined with slavery, the central bank concluded after its own investigation, and when it was abolished plantation owners (and not the enslaved) were compensated. Knot said last year that there would be no financial compensation from DNB for the victims of the slavery past, but that he would take measures to “help reduce the impact of the slavery past in the present for those directly involved”.
Solid piggy bank
DNB will distribute the money in two ways. Five million euros will go to major investments. Initially, the money will go to the future National Slavery Museum in Amsterdam, the Elisabeth Samson House in Suriname and the Tula Museum in Curaçao. Investments in the islands of Sint Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba will also follow this year. The expertise of the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund should help with the sensible distribution of the money.
The other five million euros will go to “foundations, citizens’ initiatives and individuals with projects that have the potential to contribute to improving the living conditions of descendants, where transatlantic slavery has created arrears”.
DNB is wholly owned by the Dutch state; when she makes a profit (which she has done continuously since 1947) it goes to the state treasury. But due to rising interest rates, that era is over; DNB expects a loss of 10 billion in the coming years. With a hefty savings of 11 billion, the central bank hopes not to have to turn to the government to keep itself afloat. The 10 million for the fund announced on Tuesday will also be taken from this buffer. If the central bank’s losses run faster than expected, the state will effectively have to pay for the costs of the DNB fund.
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