Peopie 2 International Brain teaser Transa<t 'live' in Singapore Mid-West revisited Hong Kong's big bang ,,V ISSUE 23/15 NOVEMBER 1993 Australia Chris Abbenhuis arrived in Sydney on October 1 to commence his tenure as gen- eral manager. Although Jos van Boxel is not leaving until Febru- ary, 1994, when he will be mov- ing to New York to begin exam- ining the Canadian market, the six-month interim period will ensure a smooth transition. Belgium The Antwerp office has appointed Mare van Mieg- hem as head of its money trans fer department. On November 1 Johan Vanhulle joined the cor- porate fïnance department. Germany Following a two- year stint at the New York cor- porate banking department, Willem Cramer has now taken up the position of director of the bank's Hamburg office. Netherlands Cees Peters, for- merly director of the Hamburg office, has joined the Efficiency Drive Member Banks team. His new appointment became effec- tive in September. North America Ian Reece has joined the bank as manager of the corporate banking team. He comes to the bank from Credit Agricole where he was first vice president and head of the New York corporate banking group. The corporate finance depart ment has been reinforced by Steve Lim as senior structured finance manager. Having built up a wealth of experience at a number of international banks, Richard Zeltman has been ap pointed ForEx sales manager in treasury. Account manager Nancy O'Connor is the New York office's most recent vice presidential appointment. She joins the commodities and trade finance group as account man ager. Tax accountant David Dietz comes to the bank from KPMG Peat Marwick where he was senior manager providing fiscal advice to multinational corporations. UK Nine new staffers have join ed the bank's London office. David Bolton is senior dealer, invest- ments derivatives. The syndi- cations department has recruit- ed a senior manager, Robert Halcrow. Judith Hamilton joins the credit division as secretary and Libby Hanrahan takes up the same post in structured finance. Niamh Mulligan is the new accounts clerk. The banking division has two new secretaries, Sandy Robinson and Fiona Willison, with Sue Robinson reinforcing the secretarial side of project finance. Leon Woolley has joined the bank as chauffeur. Although the London office hasn't been very successful in its attempts to score in the bank's international football tournament, UK Rabobankers were sporting enough to set up a TV in the office so that late-workers could watch the Dutch national soccer team wipe out the Brits last month. The game was watched with mixed emotions and loyalties, but the English appear to be noble in defeat. They have now issued a very different challenge - an international general know- ledge quiz tournament. Says sydications banker Pamela Green: 'This branch is positively full of quiz champions. As more and more peopie get the bug, the questions get harder. The last time we organized a quiz here you couldn't swing a cat in the staff cafeteria. Our next quiz will be in November, and any visiting Rabobankers are welcome to join However, the London branch is not just issuing this one-off invi- tation. It would like to see a real inter-branch/office tournament set up on the same basis as sport ing events. Anyone with any ideas on how this could be organ ized, or who would simply like to take part, should contact Raboband International editor Anne Lavelle in Utrecht (+31 30 902083). The Foreign Exchange module (both Spot and Forward) of Transact, a Front End Deal Capture System marketed by the Internet System was successfully implemented and went 'live' at the Singapore Branch on October 19. Preparation for this project began soon after a feasibility stu- dy was completed last June. In August, an Internet Consultant and an experienced Transact team member from Utrecht, Martin Bent, joined the imple- mentation team in Singapore. Within two months (involving a lot of hard work by everyone in the team), the system finally went live one day after the pro- jected target date. The project's success was mainly due to the close working relationship with Utrecht and a dedicated team in the Branch. Senior treasury manager, Theo van Koningsveld, is thrilled with the new system: 'The increased volatility in the financial markets forces banks to improve their risk management. By using this real-time system, the dealers and management are always aware of the market risks the bank takes.' The next phase of the project, the implementation of money mar ket, FRA and futures, is targeted to start at the beginning of next year. After media saturation following disastrous flooding in the US Mid-West in the summer, little information has emerged on the aftermath of the national emergency. In August, Rabobank's Larry Sidwell said it was too soon to oversee just what the flooding would mean for the region's agriculture. He now provides an update on the situation. Tm pleased to say we seem to have come through this in rela- tively good shape,' he says. 'Al though the weather has remained wet and cool, we haven't had the early frosts that would have spelt disaster for most farmers. In fact, we've almost had a normal grow- ing season and peopie are out in the fields now harvesting soy. We're a bit late with corn because of the wet weather, and yields are down around 15 percent on last year. But 1992 was a bumper year, so that's not particularly surprising.' The situation may not be as bad as was feared a couple of month ago, but Larry confirms that some farmers have been wiped out. 'There will certainly be some bankrupties and foreclosures in the region, but we saw the same last year. The flooding certainly had an impact, but we've also seen price rises for some crops, so I'd say at least some farmers are relatively happy with the way things have turned out.' The roar of canon fire that manages to drown out even Hong Kong's normal noon- time hyperactive buzz and bustle remains a rare traditional link with the past in a time of rapid change in the colony. Jardine's Noonday Gun is part of Hong Kong's folklore. With only brief interruptions, it has been fired by the trading company daily at mid-day since 1841. Although departing general manager Sjouke Postma hasn't been in the colony that long, he didn't want his leaving (to set up Rabobank operations in China) to go unnoticed. And Jardine was kind enough to oblige. Rabo bank would like to thank the company for allowing Sjouke his own particular brand of big bang.

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