COTTONING ON
F&A top in Singapore
meeting point
WHAT'S NfwS Issue 10 October 1996
For the fifth successive year, account managers from all
over the world met in Utrecht to network and, most
importantly, receive a complete briefing on the cotton
sector, which will be the F&A marketing focus in 1997.
The now traditional annual gathering was again
combined with the trade finance managers meeting so
that specialists from the whole network could get
together and swap insights, experiences and know-how.
The food and agri research team again
hosted the dedicated conference for
international account managers in
Utrecht. Cotton was the primary theme.
But participants were also ahle to hrush
up their know-how on new products, such
as green currency hedging and commodity
derivatives. For the first time, external
speakers, such as US cotton trader
William B. Griffin, were invited to give
their insights into how the cotton business
works.
Mid-week, the account managers joined
up with trade finance people from the
network for program of workshops
designed to improve teamwork and
cooperation between the disciplines. The
trade finance managers were also updated
on the cotton business, but much of their
time was spent on developing new
techniques - and not only for structuring
their deals. Yong Meng of Singapore was
As part of its lOth anniversary celebration.the bank joined with the
National University of Singapore to organize a top conference on the
outlook for F&A in South-East Asia. Attended by over participants and
attracting authoritative speakers from major F&A corporates from the
region,the bank presented a cluster of of dedicated country studies.
Individual indepth research and forecasts on India, Malaysia,Vietnam,
Thailand and Indonesia were launched to reinforce the bank's knowledge-
driven approach to F&A.The aim of the studies is to provide added value for
clients and, says Hans Hannaart of Singapore branch, 'this is clearly a service
that is not only appreciated.There was so much interest in attending the
conference, we had to close registration due to oversubscription.There is a
clear need for the type of know-how we were offering both through the
conference itself and the studies we launched there.'
GEEF ZE VAN
KATOEN
Voor het vijfde achtereen
volgende jaar werd de
F&A accountmanagers meeting gehouden
in Utrecht, waarbij ook een dag van gedach
ten werd gewisseld met de collega's van
Trade Finance. Als onderwerp stond 'katoen'
op de agenda. De Amerikaanse katoenhan
delaar William B. Griffin gaf een toelichting
op de werking van de katoenindustrie.
Uiteraard stonden ook nieuwe producten op
bancair gebied op de agenda, zoals 'green
currency hedging'en 'commodity
derivatives'en werd een zeer complexe deal
van kantoor Singapore uitgebreid besproken.
scheduled to talk participants through an
extremely complex structured deal. Client
commitments prevented him from
attending, so for the first time he
addressed the meeting via video
conferencing from Singapore.
Another first is the dedicated export
finance seminar held in the last week in
September. Hosted by the bank, it
brought together international
Rabobankers and clients for an indepth
exchange on the problems confronting
exporters and how the bank can respond
to their needs.
Over the past five years, Slovenka Ristic
has been the first point of contact for
account managers attending the annual I
meetings. Now, she has switched
departments and this was her final year as
organizer. Good luck to you, Slovenka, in
your new job with the economie research
department, working on EMU.