Estonia in Utrecht
Holland
in BRIEF
E R N A T
Staff communication magazine for the Rabobank Gko
Australia in CP
program
Negative picture
Study update
Corporate finance
talks
Looking ahead
Unusual transactions
Rabobank Academy
Transactions through network
Rabobank buys patents
ISSUE 23/15 NOVEMBER 1993
Rabo Australia Ltd has launched
a multi-currency A$500 million
Euro-commercial paper pro
gram. The arranger is Swiss
Banking Corporation and the
dealers are SBC, Westpac, CBA
and Rabobank's head office and
Singapore branch. See page 4.
Some time ago, we sent a pack-
age of photographs of the
Zurich office back to Monica
Krienbühl by internal mail. Yes,
you guessed right - they never
arrived. Did anyone receive
them by mistake? If so, please
dispatch them to Monica as
soon as possible.
In the coming month, the agri-
research team will be publish-
ing two new studies - poultry
and pigs. Copies of the studies
are available from the market
ing services department in
Utrecht - +31 30 902084.
Representatives of foreign of
fices' corporate finance depart-
ments met with colleagues from
Utrecht to develop networking
in this area. See page 3.
Operations managers from all
international offices will gather
in Utrecht for their annual meet
ing on November 15. The Dutch
Ministry of Agriculture and Ra-
bobank.co-host a poultry sem
inar during VIV-Asia on Novem
ber 23 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Rabobank's head office in Utrecht was the focus of national
media attention on October 27 as the bank welcomed a high-
ranking trade delegation from the Baltic state of Estonia.
Estonian deputy prime minister Hanni led the mission whose
aim was to attract investment from the Netherlands. The
seminar was jointly organized by the Clingendael institute, the
Netherlands council for trade promotion, the Estonian
government and Rabobank.
Following an informative intro-
duction on the Baltic States -
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -
as geographically strategie re-
gion, the Estonians got down to
the real business in hand. The
importance of this mission for
the small Baltic state was appar-
ent from the presence of not on-
ly the deputy prime minister, but
also the minister of economie af-
fairs and the chairman of the
Estonian parliament's economie
and agricultural committee.
Estonia officially regained its in-
dependence from the former
Soviet Union in 1991 and in the
intervening period government
policy has focussed on privatiz-
ation, stimulating free trade and
the elimination of state subsidies
in order to pave the way for a
broad-based market economy.
In June 1992, Estonia introduced
its own convertible currency, the
E-Kroon, which is pegged to the
German mark, and it has re-
mained stable.
Althoughy short on natural re
sources, Estonia believes it has a
lot to offer foreign investors. In
addition to a highly-trained
work force, it appears to have
made the transition from com-
mand to market economy with
relative ease. In the space of one
year, inflation has been reduced
from 1000 to 25 percent, and
forecasts indicate this figure will
be comparable to northern
European norms by 1995.
The deputy prime minister, who
was visiting the Netherlands for
the second time, expressed real
interest in Rabobank's cooper-
ative structure. 'We are attempt-
ing to re-introduce this kind of
banking system in Estonia,' she
said, 'but we still have a long way
to go.'
Suspect and unusual financial
transactions have to be reported
by Dutch banks to the author-
ities. The Netherlands' parlia-
ment, the 'Second Chamber' has
recently passed new legislation to
regulate reporting. The new law
is designed to combat launder-
ing.
Work is currently ongoing on
the establishment of the Rabo
bank Academy. This educational
institute is aimed at increasing
the basic training levels of staff
and management and courses
followed there should ultimately
be recognized outside the bank.
Member-bank transactions will
no longer be sent on diskette to
the bank's two central computer
centres. A new 'mini-batch' sys
tem will soon be operational
whereby data will be 'collected'
by central computers via an RTN
network from the banks.
In a remarkable deal between the
bank and the giant Philips elec-
tronics Corporation, Rabobank
has acquired a number of patents
owned by Philips. The multina
tional is now 'renting' these pat
ents from the bank. The reason-
ing behind the deal was the im-
provement of Philips results and
the bank earns an interesting an
nual rent. The Dutch media had
a field day with this unusual fi
nancial construction and for a
couple of weeks Rabobank was
making front-page headlines
every day.
