8
the netherlands
What's NewS Issue 2 February 1997
understand why the bank
originally had two central
organizations is outside the
scope of this very potted
history. (A book, in both
Dutch and English, exists on
the history of the cooperative
movement. It was written by
Professor Johan de Vries in the
1970s. The bank's library in
Utrecht has a copy.) Suffice it
to say - there were two, both
of which were established in
1898, which goes someway to
explaining the centenary year.
HISTORIC
CONTRIBUTION
The two central organizations
joined together in 1972 to
become the Cooperative
Centrale Raiffeisen-
Boerenleenbank - which is a
mouthful in anyone's language.
It was soon neatly trimmed to
Rabobank. But like all school
history lessons, all of these
dates teil us very little about
the people, the unsung heroes,
who were so inspired by
Raiffeisen's thinking that they
launched a movement that
would play a role in Holland's
economie development and
history. By the end of the
Second World War, the
'farmers' bank was no longer a
niche player, serving rural
communities exclusively
throughout the country as it
had been at the turn of the
century. The cooperative notion
behind the bank has also made
its mark on other sectors, and
especially in the retail market.
LOCAL RELATIONS
One reason was the fact that
through their local
membership structure and
administration, cooperative
banks had also become
entrenched in the communities
they served. Because they are
autonomous, the staff have
extensive discretion in
handling the business of the
local community. Every
Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen
business customer
automatically becomes a
member. In this way, both
bank and customer become
related. Both have an interest
in the well-being of the other.
And the bank also has a
tradition (which has long
become an expectation) of
putting back into the
community. Through all forms
of local sponsorship and
contributions to charities, local
Rabobanks all over Holland
have become an integral part
of their communities.
NATIONAL INVESTMENT
These are some of the reasons
that made Rabobank the
preferred savings bank for
most ordinary people in the
Netherlands long before it
captured market leader-
positions in most personal
consumer sectors. That meant
it was extremely well-
capitalized. After the
devestation of the Second
World War, it became clear
that Holland had few exports
that could earn the desparately
needed forex it needed for
reconstruction. One of the few
was F&A, but the sector
required radical modernization
if it was to be successful. This
is where Rabobank came in.
We pumped in the investment
which would transform this
country into one of the most
advanced F&A producers in
the world.
INTERNATIONAL
GROWTH
But if we were providing the
finance to turn the country's
F&A industry into a top
exporter, as an organization,
we weren't looking much
further than our national
borders. That changed in the
late 1970s as increasingly our
clients needed banking services
abroad. For many years, we
had no more than a tiny
international network. But in
retrospect, it looks as if the
giant triple-A rated bank was
merely biding its time until it
could pursue its philosophy of:
once we go in, we are there to
stay. In the past six or seven
years, the international
network has grown, and
continues to grow, so rapidly
it's sometimes hard to keep
track of how many offices we
actually have - 77 at the last
count? And more to come as
we expand into Central and
Eastern Europe and other
growth markets. In fact,
growth in recent years has
been so rapid that the bank's
foreign activities last year
became a subsidiary rather
than a division. As Rabobank
International it continues to be
part of a long tradition of
cooperative banking, exporting
the concept of cooperation and
mutual activity to benefit our
clients to every region and
country in which we operate.
CONSULTATIVE STRUCTURE
While 'ordinary'banks have shareholders.we are special in that the
cooperative concept means all profits are not paid out in dividends,
but are ploughed back into the organization. Our'shareholders'are
the local member banks which are joined with other Rabobank
subsidiaries in a unique cross-guarantee system. It is this
interrelationship which makes the Rabobank Group so strong.
As these entities are the very foundations of the Group,
unsurprisingly they also determine policy for the whole organization.
This is why a decision-making process has been structured to
facilitate their input. Some people may think that the involvement in
just over 500 autonomous local banks in decision-making is a rather
round-about way of doing things. However, time has shown that by
achieving consensus across the board, any new strategy or approach
introduced will enjoy the backing and commitment of the whole
organization - the consultative way the Client Focus Strategy has
been embedded into Rl reflects the cooperative concept.
General assembly (Jaarvergadering) four representatives from
each member bank - annual.
General regional assembly (Centrale kringvergadering)
6 representatives of each regional assembly - quarterly.
Regional assemblies (Kringvergadering) there are
22 of these regional assemblies based on geographical districts.
Each is made up of local member bank directors who
meet twice a year,although meetings can be more frequent if
members consider this necessary.
INTERNATIONALE ONTWIKKELING
De fusie van de Raiffeisen-organisatie en de Boerenleenbank in 1972 resulteerde in de Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-
Boerenleenbank, opererend onder de naam Rabobank. De vraag van klanten leidde begin jaren 80 tot het opzetten van een
internationaal netwerk. Goed doordacht en met als motto: als we er zijn, dan blijven we. De laatste zes jaar vond een forse expansie plaats, die zeker
nog niet ten einde is.
