WILLEMSTAD - ING Bank refused a transaction in the Netherlands from a Curacao citizen with a Dutch passport in which no citizen service number was stated. This is a code number that applies to Dutch nationals born in the Netherlands as an obligation and that is necessary for all sorts of very different things.

In the Netherlands, the number is listed as standard in the passport, but Curacao does not have an allocation of social security numbers.

Rudlien Haddock of "Kranshi", the population register, is aware of the reporting on the incident, but does not know the details about it. She certainly does not want to say that ING Bank made a mistake with the refusal. She has asked for clarification on the matter at Foreign Affairs and is awaiting an answer.

A Dutch passport issued on Curacao is certainly not a second-rate passport, she says.