De Lage
Landen
ireland
What's NewS Issue 4 April 1996
9
TACKLING THE DOMESTIC MARKET
Corporate banking manager
Deirdre Hannigan has a tough
market to crack. The corporate
side is massively overbanked in
this country,'she says.'And there
are a lot of foreign banks here as
well. As our economy is relatively
small, there is only a certain
number of large companies that
are interesting for us. But we
definitely see a long-term niche
for Rabobank here. After all,
around 30 percent of Ireland's
tangible exports are agricultural.
OurTriple-A status is clearly a help among Irish F&A corporates. And
the fact that we bring a strong background in this area to the market.'
Hannigan is still working this market alone. But she will be building a
team, slowly but surely, to target the top 50 to 75 corporates in the
Republic.
Deirdre Hannigan
behalf. In other words, we
provide all the expertise
necessary in order for the
captive to operate profitably in
Ireland. Any profits which
emanate from the captive are
returned back to the parent
company.
CONSIDERABLE
POTENTIAL
According to Malley, the
creation of a captive is both
cost and tax effective. But
managing such companies is
only one aspect of Interpolis'
product range in Ireland. 'The
other side,' he says, 'is our
^reinsurance operations.
Essentially, this is Interpolis'
own captive here in Ireland. It
is a market where we see huge
develop-ment potential. We
have a licence here to write
third-party business, so we are
actively attracting clients who
would reinsure their excess
capacity with us. This market
would comprise other insu-
rance/reinsurance companies
looking to reinsure their
liabilities. However, we would
obviously only accept select
quality business to ensure a
high profit margin.' Malley
adds, 'we'd clearly be looking
for blue-chip business.'
CLOSE RELATIONS
The third area where Malley
and his team are active is
through Interpolis Insurance
Ireland. 'This is a licensed
company for credit insurance
with the ability to write
business into European Union
member states. At present, we
underwrite for companies in
the Rabobank Group, but
we're hoping to extend that to
third-party business, maybe
even this year, 1996 Malley
believes the arrival of
Rabobank in Dublin has been
a real advantage for the
Interpolis operation. 'We use
their expertise a great deal,' he
says. 'They assist us on
taxation, legal matters, and
accounting. But we also
market our products in
conjunction with the bank.
We provide account managers
(both Nederland and the
Affiliates)with specifications of
the type of companies we think
would benefit from a captive.
Once an account manager has a
prospect, we then make a joint
presentation to the cliënt. We've
found that if we market our
products with Rabobank, the
whole Group has a better
opportunity to provide the "All
- Finance" concept. One
example of group co-operation
on the commercial front is the
joint promotion by Rabobank
Ireland and ICMS of the
captive/treasury vehicle which is
a unique "one stop shop"
facility for the risk management
needs of large corporates. This
integration applies similarly to
De Lage Landen who are
equally supportive which
illustrates and reinforces the
concept of "All - Finance"
through daily group co-
operation. From a marketing
point of view, the more
potential customers we reach,
the more business we can do.
And that's why we're here.'
De Lage Landen (DLL) rounds
out the Rabobank Group
trinity in the Irish capital.
Although DLL is both factor
and leasor, its main focus here
is cross-border leasing and, of
course, treasury. General
manager Jan Frederix talks us
through the advantages of
Dublin as base.
HIGH TECH SYSTEMS
During the bank's start-up period, the treasury and operations team
expended major energyon building systems, reporting and risk
management. 'You have to take this in stages,' says head of operations
Brendan Burke.'And working fora cautious bank like Rabobank, you
have to have permission for this and permission for that. We were
extremely fortunate to have Ton Knaap here. He has been an important
person for all of us because he has such an incredible range of
experience in this area.'Ton Knaap has left for Rabobank Guernsey, but
he leaves behind him a strong operations team equipped with state of
the art systems. Dublin has been one of the bank's test sites when it
comes to introducing high-tech systems and 'they've not been without
teething problems,' Burke says.'But we now use the mostadvanced
version of Atlas Internet and havea remote linkto the Devon system in
Utrecht. We were fortunate in that, unlike other offices, we didn't have a
huge existing system to convert.We were able to start from scratch.'
Brendan Burke, Clare Barret and Ton Knaap
INTERPOLIS
Bij Interpolis houdt men zich vooral bezig met'captive insurance'. Een 'captive'wordt opgezet door bedrijven om alle bedrijfsrisico's
in onder te brengen. Grote industriële bedrijven krijgen echter niet altijd alle verzekeringen gedekt. Een alternatief is dan om een
W eigen herverzekeringsstructuur op te zetten onder management van Interpolis. Interpolis levert alle benodigde kennis en de
winsten worden teruggesluisd naar het moederbedrijf. Interpolis informeert accountmanagers in Nederland en bij de buitenlandse kantoren over
het soort bedrijf waarvoor een'captive'geschikt is, zodat zij potentiële klanten kunnen benaderen. Daarnaast doet Interpolis een groot aantal
herverzekeringen voor bedrijven en andere verzekeraars.
