International Banking
Services means
crossborder business
Rabo
band
Rabo
At the beginning of this year, a group of departments working on
international product development and advisory services to clients
were restructured to form one streamlined entity. international
Banking Services (IBS) performs a vast range of tasks in behalf of
member banks' customers, including the design of efficiënt cross
border payments systems, consultancy, information and training.
South African trade
delegation meets with
Rabobank
People
w t sp" f m mmmé v
Issue 21/September 20,1993 band
As international sanctions against
South Africa are about to be lifted, a 20-
strongteam, including agriculture minister
Van Niekerk (left), visited the Netherlands
in early September.
The delegation was received by Rabobank
on September 8. The bank has recently
begun doing business with South Africa on
a limited scale in the form of loans to the
country's food and agribusiness sector.
However, the unstable political, economie
and social situation there means that the
bank is taking an extremely cautious stance
and is carefully examining the market.
Mexico Katrien de Moor joins the newly
opened Mexico office as secretary. De
Moor, who is a Belgian national, has lived in
Mexico for the past eight years and speaks
fluent English, Dutch, French and, of course,
Spanish.
North America Shaun Clinton joins the
bank as corporate finance officer from
ABN/AMRO and Robert Buckler has been
appointed manager, dollar office. He comes
to Rabobank from First City Texas Bank.
Both appointments effective June 1. Lawyer
Maria K. Lerner took up her new position on
June 28. The Chicago office has a new ac
count manager, Stephen Phillips. Formerly
with Credit Agricole, he joined the bank on
July 12. Adriaan Weststrate took up his ap-
pointment as account manager/Dallas in
August. He comes to the bank from Banco
Holandes. ForEx manager Kevin Raphael
joined the bank on September 1.
INTERNATIONAL
Editorial staff
Stan Polman and Anne Lavelle
(Editorial Department), Cees van
Rest and Brigitte van Kanten (In
ternational Division).
At first sight, the cluster of activities
which form Jan Dijkstra's Interna
tional Banking Services department
may seem an unlikely combination. IBS
comprises three basic sections - payments'
product and system development and man
agement, international advisory services,
and internal commercial services. Yet as
you talk to the people who make IBS work,
the structure begins to make sense. In a
nutshell, one section develops and man-
ages products, the international advisory
teams market and sell them, and internal
commercial services provide essential after-
sales back-up and support. But there's
more to it than that.
Overlap IBS was created by drawing
together a number of departments which
were related and had some overlap. 'Advis-
ing member banks and their clients on
foreign payments is a daily part of what we
do,' says international advisory team-leader
Petra Verhoeff, 'and the product develop
ment and management section here is in-
Editorial address
Rabobank Nederland, Caroline Renette, editorial as-
sistant, P.O. Box 17100, NL 3500 HG Utrecht, Tele-
phone +31 30 902083, Telefax +31 30 901904
Designed and printed by Hoonte-Holland, Utrecht
Verhoeff - comprehensive advice on
doing business abroad
volved in refining crossborder transactions,
so they would often be asked for advice.
What happened when IBS was formed was
that the two elements were linked together,
so that we could provide a faster and more
efficiënt service to clients.'
Cooperation Product development
manager CorWeijns agrees. 'One of the pro-
jects we are working on at present is a fast,
effective and more cost-efficient European
payments system. In addition to all the
know-how we have in-house on developing
systems of this kind, our link with the inter
national advisory teams means we're on top
of what clients want and thus can tailor our
products to meet those demands.'
Cutting costs International payments
systems are an integral part of all banking
activities worldwide, but existing methods
are, accordingto IBS, too costly. 'Look at it
this way,' says Weijns, 'if you were to see
the current system in terms of automobiles,
then you could say that what we have to
offer is in the Mercedes or BMW price range.
What we don't have is a VW Golf product. At
present, a traditional payments transaction
costs NLG 1.95. As soon as that payment
crosses the border, even if it only has to
travel 100 metres into, say, Belgium or Ger-
many, then the costs soar to NLG 30. This
is because the system is based on individ-
ual payments. Our sense is that there must
be a cheaper, and faster, way to get pay
ments from point A to B. We're working on
it!'
International relations The Euro-pay-
ments system which is currently in develop
ment is based on high mass, low volume.
Achieving it means cooperation with otherfi-
nancial institutions in a Europe-wide network
of strategie aliiance partners. This is where
the international advisory team (IAT - per-
haps better known as the Eurodesk) comes
in. Over time, the IAT has built up strong re-
lationships with the bank's European aliiance
partners, thus gaining knowledge and ac
cess to knowledge of national banking sec
tors which a foreign bank usually does not
have.
Specialization 'There are, in fact, two
lATs,' explains Verhoeff. 'Co-workerTom van
der Weijden heads up one whose main area
of specialization is Germany and Austria. It
comprises six people, four of whom are ex
perts on Germany and two of those are ac-
tually based there. The reason for this high
concentration is that Germany is the Nether
lands' biggest trading partner, so we get nu-
merous requests for advice on doing busi
ness there from member banks' clients'.
Verhoeff's own eight-person team covers
the UK, France, Spain and Italy. 'This in-
cludes two people on the spot, one in France
and one in Spain,' she says.
Comprehensive Although specialized
in Europe, the lATs provide a vast range of
international advice to member banks'
clients. 'We are asked anything from how
payments transactions with Senegal work to
how a company can open a bank account in
Chile,' Verhoeff says. 'But essentially, our
main aim is to give clients comprehensive
advice on doing business abroad, while at
the same time marketing and selling the
