On the alert
C
3
Rabobank
What's NewS
Monthly internal newsletter for Rabobank International
Issue 10 October 1996
Theo van Koningsveld and bis brainchild - at the cradle of breaking
tecbnological development for the bank and its clients
in brief j-
SOUTH AFRICA -
IT'S OFFICIAL
The state visit of Queen
Beatrix proved the ideal
opportunity to launch
officially the bank's rep office
in South Africa. Minister of
Economie Affairs, Wijers, who
formed part of the
accompanying trade mission,
did the honours for the bank
on October 1Johannesburg-
based representative Paco den
Doop had put together a
comprehensive program for
Henk Visser, who attended on
behalf of the executive board.
Senior level cliënt meetings and
consultations with both
government and banking
•uthorities are on the agenda
mark the bank's offical
entry into this exciting market.
Big things proverbially come in small packages - and Rabo Alert
is a perfect example. This tiny, hip-hugging electronic paging
device was devised by Rabobank to meet the niche needs of
finance industry professionals, corporate clients, and private
banking customers. It has been designed to deliver real-time data
on breaking developments in the stock, bond, and FX market
worldwide. Each subscriber will get only the information they
need. For example, corporate clients may be particularly
interested in FX cross-rates. Private banking clients, trading on
margin, are more intent on the value of their bond and stock
portfolios at the end of every day. Rabo Alert also comes
supplied with software that enables an office colleague or spouse
to directly transmit an urgent message. Already tested, the service
is now scheduled for public launch. Raw financial data will be
delivered by Dow Jones Telerate, market analysis by IRIS, the
pagers supplied by Motorola, and the connections by KPN, the
Dutch telecoms group. The way all of these components have
been tied together, and the resulting service plugged into a
waiting cliënt base, signals Rabobank's success in surfing the
tsunami-wave of breaking technical developments. Even the
competition has signed on for the ride. Theo van Koningsveld,
who conceived the product, says he can 'only chuckle whenever
I think of all those professionals on the ABN Amro and ING
trading floors who have Rabobank-labeled pagers buzzing on
their hips!'
contents
TRIODOS - GREEN
STAKE
As the first of the trio of major
Dutch banks, Rabobank has
taken a 5-percent stake in the
Triodos bank, a growing
financial institution whose goal
is investment in projects which
advance and support sustainable
development. Known as the
'Green Bank' in the Nether-
lands, Triodos was founded in
1980 and has since set up
subsidiaries in both Belgium
and the UK. Through financing
environmentally and socially
responsible projects, also in the
Developing World, Triodos has
seen its balance sheet grow
strongly. 'Business is going so
well - we saw a 35 percent
increase in our balance sheet
last year to NLG 310 million,'
says Triodos chairman Mackay,
'and we feit the time was right
to look for a capital injection to
doublé our own assets. Rabobank
is the first of the majors in
Holland to take a stake.' Dutch
insurer Delta Lloyd has also
taken a similar stake in the
green bank. According to
Mackay, the relationship with
Rabobank is very much linked
to chairman Herman Wijffels'
and the whole organization's
commitment to sustainable
development. This commitment
is also apparent in the fact that
Wijffels wrote the introduction
to Triodos' most recent
prospectus for its fourth
emission. Rabobank itself has
already established a number of
Continued on page 2.
WHAT'S NEWS IS BACK
AGAIN WITH AN INFO
PACKED ISSUE ON
WHAT'S HAPPENING
IN THE BANK.
Working relations - DSM on
what we do well 3
Retailing technology -
advances in store 4
Telecom in print - moving into
media 5
Networking - account and
trade finance managers
cottoning on 8
Taxing exercises - fiscal
applications in the bank 10
Talking heads - IPB's
Thomas van Rijckevorsel
does it himself 12