Membership of HQ is not without its obligations. All members must meet the requirements of the independent quality inspection mark, issued by Stichting AQTO. Members must also dedicate themselves to continual professional development, education and quality improvement within their organisation. They must be aware of their corporate social responsibility and take initiatives to secure a high quality, transparent service, now and in the future.

More information on the quality mark can be found on the website of Stichting AQTO.

HQ promotes the continual professionalisation of its members from a social and economic perspective. To supplement the sector’s supervision, which is carried out by the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), and existing rules on administrative organisation and internal audit, HQ has established a code of conduct for its members. This sets out the five core values and conditions which members of HQ must observe.

1. Integrity: HQ members must conduct their activities adequately and with due diligence, subject to applicable legislation and regulation, and behave in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the law. In all their activities, they will not allow themselves to be influenced by improper business dealings; they are to take responsibility for their own actions and be answerable for their actions.
2. Independence: HQ members must exercise their activities independently so that they are not influenced improperly by third parties. Additionally, they should perform their activities in such a way that there is no conflict of personal or improper interests.
3. Reliability: In the performance of their duties, HQ members must try to comply with all agreements made. If this proves unexpectedly impossible, they should make this known to all interested parties. Knowledge and information made available to the HQ member must be applied in line with the purpose for which this information was provided.
4. Sustainability: HQ members should aim to foster long-term working relationships that apply socially responsible business practices as a guiding principle.
5. Professionalism: HQ members should always demand high standards of each other as well as in the implementation of their professional duties. Quality and customer orientation are primary goals.

The association’s objective is to improve the quality and professionalism of its members through which it seeks to stand out. The association represents its members, not the sector. The promotion of interests plays a more modest role.

HQ aspires to be a platform that all trust offices in the Netherlands can join. A platform where the members conduct open discussions about objectives, strategy, structure and culture.
The main aim of HQ is looking after the interests of its members and the economic continuity and development of the trust sector as a whole.

The strength of HQ lies in formulating quality criteria, standards and templates for the sector, such as the Regulation for ethical business practices.

In a world in which economies and markets are connected globally and trade and finances are fragmented, Holland Quaestor provides unity.

HQ connects and stimulates collaboration between all value chain partners, such as the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), Ministry of Finance, Chamber of Commerce and Dutch Securities Institute (DSI). In this way, HQ wants to contribute to the quality of the services provided by its members and thus add value to the sector.

The vision of Holland Quaestor is to give its members a firm basis for providing a quality service.
The guiding principle is they are not influenced exclusively by self-interest in the performance of their activities, but that they also consider their (joint) responsibility for society as a whole. Therefore, our members do not engage with parties that may be considered untrustworthy.

This vision and the promising perspective have been set out in the 2015-2020 policy plan, categorised into the following four topics:

1. Engaging in ethical conduct

2. Building bridges with stakeholders

3. Organising HQ business operations

4. Participating in mutual relationships

Download the Management Summary 2015-2020 of Holland Quaestor.

A French construction company had won a large invitation to tender in the Netherlands. This is a project that would last several years, although no permanent workforce would be recruited for the project. Work on the construction site would be carried out from a crew wagon, and although the construction site would sometimes harbour more than 200 professionals, these would be mostly subcontractors, self-employed individuals and freelancers. Any employees of the French construction company would be sent to the site as specialists for short periods only. The company decided to establish a Dutch company to carry out this project and to engage a trust office to carry out the duties of the executive board. This would give all contract parties guaranteed continuity and would remove the need to recruit or transfer permanent staff from France.

One of the world’s largest hotel franchises has a sales team in the Netherlands. More than twenty professionals try to persuade independent hotels to apply the franchise’s formula. None of the sale employees are senior enough to manage the operations of the Dutch company, which employs these representatives and rents their office. Except for an office manager and HR professional, there is no management on the ground as this operates outside the Netherlands.

A trust office looks after all executive board tasks for the Dutch company on behalf of this foreign hotel chain. Its team of trust professionals have the necessary experience and routine to carry out all the formalities performed on behalf of the company.