Chess mate
Calling all
clients
in Brazil
Winning image
Guernsey office
takes off
Straight dealing
Rabobank
International
goes monthly
New marketing tools
for international use
Staff communication magazine
for the Rabobank Groun
''3IN6LE BELLS
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For 21 days in October in-
surer Interpolis played host to
the great names in inter
national chess as 112 grand
masters trom 40 countries put
their minds to winning the
Interpolis trophy and the Dfl.
100,000 first prize.
This was the 16th time the in-
surer had welcomed the creme
de la creme of chess - which in-
cluded Anatoly Karpov, Nigel
Short, Jan Timman and Vis-
wanathan Anand - to its head-
quarters in the Dutch town of
Tilburg.
For the three weeks of the tour-
nament, Interpolis is the centre
of international media attention.
Seven knock-out rounds each
lasting three days ultimately
produced the finalists. This
year's winner was Briton Micha-
el Adams, with Boris Gelfand of
Belorussia as runner-up.
Rabobank has carried off this
year's Corporate Image Prize for
a special advertising campaign
developed by Saatchi Saatchi.
Awarded biannually by Elan
magazine, the international jury
praised the campaign as 'the
one which expressed the enter-
prise's personality in the most
distinguished fashion'.
Rabobank now has a new
subsidiary on the Channel Is-
land of Guernsey. Established
to provide services for both
Dutch and international clients,
Rabobank Guernsey Ltd, led by
Roy Smith, will focus on fixed
deposits, equity transactions,
trust activities and asset man
agement.
Raibo do Brasil is now offici-
ally networked into the SWIFT
system. The first message was
sent on September 8 by General
Manager Teun de Boon and As-
sistant Manager da Silva Oli-
viera, who described the link as
'a way of speeding up internal
international Communications
and thus increasing efficiency.'
Following the recent mas-
sive turmoil on the currency
markets following problems in
the EMS and US pre-election
uncertainties, Raboband Inter
national goes into the bank's
dealing rooms to talk to the
people behind one of the most
fascinating areas of banking.
See page 3.
Starting today, Raboband In
ternational will appear every
four weeks. Up until the present
time, the English-language
section of the internal Communi
cations medium Raboband was
produced only occasionally, but
the four-page of news and infor-
mation will now be published
monthly, also in the national
magazine.
The Rabobank is playing an in-
creasingly important role in the
international financial world.
As a result, the number of Inter
national Directorate employees
at foreign branches and offices
is increasing. This means top-
ical information in English on
developments within the organ-
ization has become indis-
pensible. The editorial staff of
Raboband is now producingthe
International section and has
recruited an English journalist,
Anne Lavelle, to assist in its
preparation.
In September, the Rabo-
The Marketing Services Department is currently in the pro-
cess of producing a range of Communications tools for use by the
foreign offices. A Marketing Manual has been designed to provide
basic information on how to apply house-style and maintain the
corporate image. It is currently in press and will be available in the
very near future. Raboband International asked head of Marketing
Services, Kim Egger, for a preview of the other tools his depart-
ment is now preparing specifically to assist the foreign branches
and offices in their marketing efforts - see page 4.
bank introduced a special
national telephone help-line
service. Called the Rabofoon,
it can provide immediate infor
mation on accounts to around
half of the bank's four million
clients.
The Rabofoon is a so-called
response system which is link-
ed into the Rabobank com
puter. By calling its number and
indicating a personal phone
code, a voice box is activated
and the cliënt can receive infor
mation about balance, and de
posits and withdrawals over
the previous 21 days. Most in
formation can be provided with
in a minute and the only charges
made to the customer are the
cos-t of the phone call. To date,
over 750,000 phone minutes
have been registered - an in-
dication that clients are using
the new facility on an extensive
basis.
The new service will be avail
able to all clients by the end of
this year.
B GELFAND