Marcel van Oost

Why the Netherlands Is the Perfect EU Base for Fintech — And Why Grønblad Should Be Your First Call The Netherlands has quietly become one of Europe’s most attractive launchpads for fintechs looking to scale across the EU. A stable regulatory environment, world‑class digital infrastructure, and a deep pool of international talent make it an ideal jurisdiction from where to launch an EU footprint. DNB and the AFM are known for their clarity, pragmatism, and predictability which is a major advantage for founders who want to build sustainably rather than navigate regulatory guesswork. Add to that a thriving payments and fintech ecosystem, strong English‑language proficiency, and seamless access to the wider EU market, and the Netherlands stands out as a strategic choice for any serious fintech. This is exactly where Grønblad comes in. With native Dutch speakers and a team that blends legal expertise, compliance leadership, and hands‑on regulatory consulting, Grønblad offers something rare: advisors who understand the Dutch regulatory landscape from the inside out, but who also bring international experience across the UK, EU, and global fintech markets. Whether you’re exploring an EMI licence, payments authorisation, or a broader EU footprint, Grønblad ensures your application is accurate, defensible, regulator‑credible, and operationally realistic from day one. If you’re considering the Netherlands as your EU HQ it makes total sense to start with a team that speaks the language, knows the regulators and with a network that can assist not only with the licensing, but also with the broader resourcing requirements. #Fintech #RegTech #Compliance #EUFintech #Netherlands #AmsterdamFintech #DNB #AFM #Payments #EMI #Licensing #RegulatoryStrategy #FinancialServices #EUExpansion #CrossBorderFinance #FintechGrowth #StartupExpansion #DigitalFinance #Grønblad #RegulatoryConsulting #LegalAdvisory #FintechLaw #EUHQ #ScaleUp

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🔹 Expanding into new markets shouldn’t mean building a separate identity integration for every market. Customers prefer digital identity methods they already recognize and trust. In the Netherlands, that may be iDIN. Elsewhere, they may choose itsme or another local eID or digital wallet. Bluem brings these different identity methods together through one integration: helping businesses support local customer preferences within one connected identity workflow. The result: ✓ Familiar identity methods for customers ✓ One integration for your business ✓ Relevant identity data ready for your workflow ✓ A smoother path through onboarding and KYC Local identity. One global connection. Explore Bluem’s growing eID and Digital Wallet ecosystem #DigitalIdentity #eID #iDIN #itsme #IdentityVerification

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Right on the money Patrick. The most important part of your message is that it hasn’t changed since you first started talking about this in 2018/2019. Your unerring focus positions Teylor as one of the leaders in the SME market and has enabled you to provide a real value that others have a hard time competing with. This is what true entrepreneurial leadership is all about.

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🚨 iDEAL is being replaced by Wero. Updated guidance for merchants 🇳🇱➡️🇪🇺 If your business accepts iDEAL, important changes are coming. To keep accepting bank redirect payments from Dutch customers, you must transition to Wero during 2026–2027. Below is the updated, merchant-friendly overview 👇 ⸻ 💡 What is Wero? Wero is a new pan-European payment method backed by the European Payments Initiative (EPI). It allows customers to pay securely on desktop and mobile by connecting their bank account to a Wero wallet. EPI acquired the iDEAL scheme and is migrating local payment systems into one unified European platform. ⸻ 📅 Mandatory migration timeline Phase 1: Co-branding (required) 🗓 Jan 29, 2026 – Mar 31, 2026 • Update checkout branding to “iDEAL | Wero” • No flow changes, branding only • Helps customers recognize the new brand Phase 2: Merchant migration 🗓 Starting Q4 2026 • Dutch customers can start paying with Wero • Merchants should begin migrating from iDEAL • Stripe recommends A/B testing Wero vs iDEAL Phase 3: iDEAL shutdown 🗓 Estimated 2027–2028 • iDEAL is fully phased out • Merchants complete migration to Wero • Stripe recommends finishing migration in 2027 ⸻ 🔁 What about existing subscriptions? Good news 👇 • Subscriptions started with iDEAL actually run on SEPA rails • These subscriptions will NOT be affected if you disable iDEAL at checkout • Wero subscriptions use a new mechanism, launching in 2027 ⸻ 🔄 Can iDEAL and Wero run at the same time? ✔ Yes, technically possible ⚠ Not recommended long-term Best practice: • Launch Wero early for German customers • Perform a clean cut-over once Wero is fully available in the Netherlands in 2027 • This avoids customer confusion and simplifies checkout ⸻ 🔧 Full Wero integration (from Q4 2026) • Add Wero as a payment method • Disable iDEAL • Enable via the Stripe Dashboard • Use A/B testing before fully switching ⸻ ✨ Wero vs iDEAL at a glance ✔ Native dispute support (iDEAL does not support disputes) ✔ Recurring payments supported from 2027 ✔ Pan-European reach: DE, BE, FR, NL ✔ Familiar bank redirect experience ✔ EUR support 📌 Wero is already in private preview in Germany and rolls out to Dutch consumers by the end of 2026. ⸻ 👉 Action for merchants: Start planning your iDEAL to Wero migration now and visit Stripe Docs and Support for guidance. https://lnkd.in/gTvWBazb & https://lnkd.in/g6gcvYkh #Wero #iDEAL #Stripe #Subscriptions #OnlinePayments #Fintech #EuropeanPayments #Ecommerce #PSD2

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iDEAL to transition into Wero, Europe’s Unified Digital Wallet, from 2026 Starting in early 2026, #iDEAL — the Netherlands’ dominant online payment system — will begin rebranding to iDEAL | Wero as part of a phased migration to Wero, the European digital wallet already adopted by over 45 million users and owned by EPI Company. The initiative, led in collaboration with ABN AMRO Bank N.V., ING, and Rabobank, marks the integration of Dutch payment infrastructure into the broader European Payments Initiative (EPI). Under the oversight of De Nederlandsche Bank, the transition will maintain iDEAL’s hallmark of security and reliability while expanding cross-border capabilities. Dutch consumers will soon make purchases from European merchants with the same ease as domestic payments, benefiting from features such as purchase protection and multi-chain interoperability. Since its 2005 launch, iDEAL has processed over 1.5 billion annual transactions, representing 72 percent of Dutch e-commerce payments and serving more than 350,000 businesses. The shift to Wero will unify payment experiences across Europe, offering account-to-account instant payments and supporting in-store, subscription, and mobile transactions — positioning Wero as a sovereign, pan-European alternative to global payment providers. The announce on EPI Company website in the first comment.

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Adyen grew volume 8% in 2025. Stripe grew 34%. Same industry, opposite engines. Adyen scales inside accounts it already has: • €1.39 trillion in processed volume, up 8% YoY  • Point-of-sale volume: €310.9B, comprising 22% of total processed volume • Issuing volume: up 8x year over year • Starbucks: 943 stores live in seven weeks, 120+ per week • Uber: 70+ countries, six continents, 40 key markets in one year Stripe scales with company formation: • $1.9 trillion in total volume, up 34% from 2024 • 5M+ businesses on the platform • 25% of all Delaware corporations now start via Stripe Atlas • Atlas formations: up 41%; 20% of Atlas startups charged a first customer within 30 days, versus 8% in 2020 • 2025 cohort: 57% based outside the US, growing ~50% faster than the 2024 cohort The pattern in both reports is land-and-expand versus arrival rate.  Adyen's next euro of volume comes from a merchant it already onboarded going deeper - more countries, more channels, more products. Stripe's next dollar comes from a company that didn't exist eighteen months ago. That's why Adyen reports rollout speed and Stripe reports formation counts. They're measuring the thing that actually drives them. One depends on incumbents staying healthy. The other depends on founders staying busy. Who hits $3T in volume first: Stripe or Adyen? #Treasury #Investing #Exchanges #Altcoins #Infrastructure #Startups #B2B #Banking #Economics #Ecosystem #Strategy #Innovation #Technology

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Europe is building its own regulated blockchain infrastructure. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. is helping shape it. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. is one of the 10 European financial institutions joining the launch of the Regulated Layer One (RL1) initiative, a shared, neutral, and regulatory-compliant DLT infrastructure for the financial industry. For ABN AMRO, this is a meaningful step in our digital assets journey. Building on successful issuances on public blockchains, RL1 lets: - Broaden institutional adoption and the user base of digital assets - Facilitate issuances, trading, storage, and settlement across protocols - Align with evolving regulation and client needs Why it matters RL1 is common market infrastructure, jointly owned, operated, and governed by European participants, ensuring neutrality and sovereignty. With 40+ transactions and EUR 600m settled on the SWIAT DLT network, RL1 builds on proven tech to deliver interoperability and scale. Congratulations to SWIAT and to all Phase 1 participants: ABN AMRO Bank N.V. DekaBank DZ BANK AG KfW Treasury LBBW Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking NatWest Commercial and Institutional SC Ventures by Standard Chartered Seturion (Boerse Stuttgart Group) V-Bank AG 👉 Want to stay ahead on stablecoins, tokenization, and digital assets? Sign up for the Venturebloxx newsletter, your weekly insights into where finance and technology are colliding. https://lnkd.in/d42xZkQN 👉 Full press release in the comments.

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