Rabobank Aalsmeer:
an international bank
in the Netherlands
IS
Kaoo
band Issue 6/April 6, 1990
Many flowers and plants are grown in the area around Aalsmeer,
the location of the world's largest flower auction building.
Rabobank Aalsmeer does business all over the world for its
customers, particularly for the exporters. It has the highest
number of foreign transactions of ali the Rabobanks in the
Netherlands. About ten of the hundred employees are in daily
touch with contacts abroad. An interview with commercial
director Berry Philippa and international manager Kees Kroon. The
foreign offices of the Rabobank Group are actually an outpost of
the Dutch banks', says Philippa. 'They know the country, the
regulations and the customs. Our customers are happy to use this
knowledge.' Kroon: 'The branches largely act as account offices.
They collect the payments made abroad to our customers and
transfer the amounts to the Netherlands as quickly as possible. In
other words, purely funds transfers. The customers want to have
their money here as soon as possible. That's the essential thing
for them.'
mation supply is indeed the greatest prob-
lem. At present we have a customer export-
ing to the UK who has all his cheques sent
to the Netherlands in spite of the fact that
it takes so many days extra. Simply be-
cause there's so much information on
these cheques that otherwise they couldn't
even keep their own bookkeeping up to
date. It's almost impossible for the corre
spondent banks to take over all that infor
mation. On the other hand, you could use
fax messages, but that also costs money.'
Philippa: 'It's typically a problem you get
with flowers. If you're supplying screws or
something there's absolutely no difficulty.
You simply count them and then you know
the order is all right. Actually, you must then
be able to see clearly what deliveries are in-
volved. Otherwise later on there will be an
argument about whether a delivery has
been paid for or not. That cheque problem
is something that has to be solved.'
Information 'In addition to funds trans
fers, giving information is an important task
of the branches outside the Netherlands',
thinks Kroon. 'If we want to know something
about a company, we contact our col
leagues abroad. They can also often give
advice in the legal and fiscal fields.' Philip
pa: 'But there's also something else. If
companies abroad want to do business in
the Netherlands through a Dutch bank they
are frequently referred to us. I think Rabo
bank Aalsmeer is an exception in that re
spect. Quite a few companies are passed
on to us. Even if they are in a completely
Mk customer who tells us here today
that he wants to start doing busi-
ness abroad, already wants to
start using the facilities yesterday,' says
Kroon. The Aalsmeer bank has over three
hundred and fifty customers who carry out
their foreign payment transactions via Rabo
bank. Philippa: 'Before we had our own
branches abroad, we did business with cor
respondent banks. It sometimes happened
that we at Rabobank Aalsmeer insisted
there should be a correspondent bank in
certain countries to speed up payment
transactions and then that actually hap
pened. Of course, then you have to produce
a reasonable turnover. Having your own
branch abroad is much nicer, of course. You
talk to your own people, to colleagues.'
Kroon: 'What's out there is a little bit of the
Rabobank Group. That gives us a grip on a
customer's total payment transactions. In
the flower sector it's always a matter of
granting credit on the basis of secondary
securities - in other words, debtors and
stocks - and you certainly want to have a
grip on these. You also want to see the
debtor payments coming into the accounts.
Otherwise, you have a tremendous gap in
no time.' Philippa: 'In addition, within our
own bank things can also go slightly faster
and as far as prices are concerned we can
be that bit more competitive than other
banks. You also get more information. A
foreign bank isn't prepared to keep on send-
ing on all kinds of copies of letters etc. And
that's something our own branches do.'
Cheques In the flower trade a great
many payments are made by cheque. That
sometimes causes a iot of trouble', com-
ments Philippa. 'For example, foreign cus-
Philippa (r) and Kroon: The more offices we have abroad, the better we like it.
tomers say: some of the flowers weren't
any good so I won't pay the whole invoice of
a thousand guilders but deduct a hundred
guilders from it. So then f 900 is trans-
ferred. That message is written on the
cheque. The cheque is cleared in New York
and they transfer that f 900. Then the ex-
porter doesn't know which invoice the pay
ment relates to. It takes a long time to sort
out something like that.' Kroon: 'That infor-
different business from flowers or plants.
We've acquired realiy big customers via
the New York Branch. Through our own ex-
porting customers we have gradually built
up a large fund of knowledge in the inter
national field and that comes in very handy
here.'
Speed Foreign business is going very
well at the bank in Aalsmeer. Philippa:
'From the international viewpoint Rabobank
