Rabobank - past and present
Raöo
Growing
together
Got a virus?
GOT A VIRUS ALREADY
SECURITY
Issue 22/October 18, 1993 band
lt was 75 years before the
two cooperative banking organ-
izations would finally merge to
become Rabobank. But fol-
lowing lengthy and deep delib-
eration, Rabobank became a
fact in 1973. We look at the
run-up to the merger that cre-
ated one of the biggest banks
in the Netherlands and laid the
foundations for Rabobank's
push into the international fi-
nancial arena.
The first real steps towards merger
were taken in 1968 (see Rabo-
band International, issue 21).
Following these tentative moves
towards cooperation, a number
of top people in both organiz-
ations began to envisage a time
when the farmers' cooperative
and Raiffeisen banks would
work together as one force on
the domestic financial market.
GEMEENSCHAPPELIJK BERICHT
van
COÖPERATIEVE COÖPERATIEVE
CENTRAtE CENTRALE
RAIFFEISÊN-BANK BOERENLEENBANK
UTRECHT EINDHOVEN
The 'Green Paper', so
called because of its cover
In the second stage of the
international computer secur-
ity drive, we look at the prob-
iem of viruses.
Although great progess has
been made in the prevention of
computer viruses through the
introduction of automatic
checks installed into systems,
they still occur with worryingfre-
quency. One of the main rea-
sons is that the chance of
'catching' a virus is often un-
derestimated. But how can you
recognize this sort of problem
on your PC and where do they
come from?
'Your computer can piek up a
virus from a wide range of
sources,' says Karei Reussink
of the computer policy depart-
ment. 'It can be that a repair-
man has used an infected dis
kette, you could be given a dis
kette from an outside source
that is carrying a virus, or you
can even find them in new soft
ware packages. So the mes
sage is: never start up your PC
with a diskette that hasn't been
checked, or use a diskette from
elsewhere without running virus
scans first.'
Recognizing a virus is not ai-
ways an easy business. But
there are a number of clear in-
dications:
the PC starts behaving 'irrat-
ically', ie. pieces of text sud-
denly disappear from the
screen, menus do not
respond normally, files are
lost without reason;
unexpected increased hard
disk activity - the lamp lights
up continually;
the PC suddenly starts pro-
ducing snatches of music at
odd times;
the PC's speed is inexplicably
reduced, especially when
starting up programs;
the PC's memory is suddenly
reduced or the hard disk is
reported as 'full';
IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
the original length of files car
rying the COM or ECE tag is
extended without your inter-
vention.
'If you suspect a virus,' Reus
sink advises, 'you should con
tact the system controller im-
mediately. He or she will be able
to limit the damage and help
solve the problems it may have
caused the user. All the disket
tes you use will have to be
checked, so make sure the con
troller gets all of them. And if
you use work diskettes on your
PC at home, then make sure
that computer and your person-
al diskettes are also checked
out. If you have had a virus,
then back-ups will be essential
to limit potential damage. So al-
ways remember to make back-
up files regularly.'
For more information on com
puter security, contact +31 40
346266.
Both banks were
extremely well
placed at home,
with iarge slices of
the retail market,
almost the whole
of the agri-market
and a growing pres-
ence in industry. In
combination, the
two banks would
hold an almost
unparalleled posi-
tion.
But there was still
a long way to go.
The first move was
made by the
Raiffeisen Bank.
In the summer of
1969, it made an
informal proposal
to Eindhoven on the possibility
of a joint exchange of views on
a potential merger. The propo
sal was not met with enthu-
siasm and only after repeated
attempts and finally the threat
that Utrecht's next overture
would be the last, did the
farmers' cooperative bank in
Eindhoven agree to talks.
However, once the boards sat
down at the conference table on
January 20, 1970, it seemed
there were more points of
agreement than anyone had
considered possible even a few
months before. And, of course,
there were also differences.
Yet, this meeting still resulted in
a broad outline of close coop
eration. It was feit that a merger
was not immediately necessary,
but it had to be the ultimate ob-
jective.
On June 23, 1970, the boards
of both central banks met again
to map out joint conclusions on
and Utrecht-together at last
the course that had to be fol-
lowed if merger was to be
achieved. It also set up a
cooperation committee on a
parity basis to fill in the details.
The result was a so-called
Green Paper whose opening
words indicated the then-pre-
vailing climate: 'The board of
directors of the cooperative
central Raiffeisen Bank and the
board of directors of the coop
erative central Farmers' Credit
Bank have decided to seek as
full a merger as possible of
both central banks'.
Both boards perceived this ap-
proach as leading 'to further ra-
tionalization in both the organ-
izational structure and in the lo-
cation and service policy with
regard to the member banks'.
And furthermore it was feit that
'the merging of activities offers
greater possibilities for the cre-
ation of banks, both central as
well as local, of a size com-
mensurate with economie de-
velopments'.
Considering the apparent resis-
tance to full merger only a rela-
tively short time before, this
development was a giant ad-
vance on the situation only a
couple of years before. The rea
son for the about-turn was the
telling lines in the Green Paper:
in the process of handling a
binding ruling on the location of
new offices, passed virtually
unanimously by both general
meetings, it emerged that the
ranks of both organizations were
also convinced of the advisabil-
ity of the two organizations
merging in the future'. In other
words, although the top of both
organizations may have feit that
there were great differences in
culture and approach, the grass-
roots organization at the mem
ber banks wanted merger. They
got it, but not for some time.
Keep watching this space...
