Dutch insurance company Achmea paid former US president Bill Clinton $600,000 to make a speech in Friesland in 2011, according to research by the Washington Post.

The fee – the equivalent of €440,000 – is one of the highest ever paid to Clinton who is much in demand as a public speaker. The highest fee was $750,000, paid by mobile phone giant Ericsson in 2011, the Washington Post figures show.

The Dutch speech, in the Frisian village of Achlum where the company was founded, was to celebrate Achmea’s 200th anniversary at a conference on ‘the future of the Netherlands’.

According to the Volkskrant, in his speech Clinton called for a ‘unique Dutch answer to modern solidarity’.

Achmea, the biggest player on the Dutch health insurance market, declined to comment on the report, the Volkskrant says.