Euro talks
AASTRICHT REVISITED - COOPERATIVES IN CONFERENCE
WHAT'S NEWS Issue 6 June 1997
working relations
5
Rabobank made headlines in the financial press recently when it was
'revealed' that the Outch bank had been in discussions with the Belgian
Kredietbank for some time. Rumour was rife - take-overs by us or by them,
depending on the newspaper's nationality, mergers, you name it, the press
was speculating on it. No smoke without fire? you may be wondering. At
Rabobank's General Assembly of shareholding local member banks, board-
member Henk Visser dismisses the idea of being taken over or taking over
anyone at the present time and explains why dialogue is essential.
regional markets will join together or
merge. 'But,' he explains, 'this process of
concentration has already occurred in the
Netherlands - we went through a
restructuring of the market back in the
1980s and the current big three (ABN-
Amro, ING and Rabobank) now have
around 80/90 percent of the market. I
doubt any change will occur in that
situation. In addition, the Dutch banking
industry is an efficiënt one, perhaps even
above average in Europe. So Holland is
ideally placed to look at an offensive
approach to ensure the economies of
scale and knowhow can be benefitted
from.'
'Of course, we're talking to banks around
Europe,' he says. 'The Euro is going to
mean major changes and we have to be
prepared. That's why we are in dialogues
■vith many banking colleagues, not only
Kredietbank, but also other cooperative
banks. What you have to remember is that
the Euro will not only mean massive
operational changes. We, and the rest of
the banking community, will have to
change our systems, a move that will
probably cost us between NEG 250 and
300 million. But those systems will have
to be changed if we want to offer
corporate customers services in Euros.'
LIBERALIZATION
Besides an operational motive, senior
Rabobankers are also talking to colleagues
at other European banks for strategie
reasons. 'Much of the future reality of the
Euro is still unknown,' Visser continues,
'at present, we're all predicting and
speculating. Yet, the board believes that
we will have a single currency on 1
January 1999. Even if it is postponed, it
will still happen and we still have to be
prepared. In our perception, this
represents the final stage in a liberalization
process of financial markets which has
long been ongoing. What is certain is that
the Euro will undoubtedly increase
competition.'
DEFENSIVE/OFFENSIVE
According to Visser, the board anticipates
the first moves by many banks will be
defensive. Players in domestic and/or
Rl - PLANS TO GROW
Asked if that means we are planning to
merge with another or other players,
Visser says: 'No. And that is what we
have explained here today to our
"shareholders", the member banks. We
have assured them that they will always
be the sole owner of Rabobank
Nederland. Having said that, we may at
some point in time decide to form
alliances with foreign financial
institutions or to enter into joint
ventures in order to increase the service
to our customers. Of course, it will
take sometime before action can be
expected.'
The Dutch city of convergence
criteria fame - Maastricht in
the far south of Holland - was
the venue for a Rabobank-
hosted international
conference of Europe's most
important cooperative banks.
The aim of the conference,
which attracted over 150
bankers from all eight member
organizations of the umbrella
Unico Banking Group, was to
attempt definitions of
opportunities ensuing from the
single currency.
Topics such as effects on
corporate customers, the retail
^iperation, payment systems
Rnd, of course, the Euro itself
were priority at the conference.
Keynote speaker Dr Willem
Duisenberg was on the point
of moving to the European
Monetary Institute in
Frankfurt from his position as
president of the Dutch Central
Bank. He took time out to
assure the conference that
EMU will happen on schedule.
While cooperative bankers
from all over Europe debated
EMU, their chairmen were
meeting to determine the
Group's standpoint on the
single currency. Speaking for
Herman Wijffels hosted the conference and the dinner.
the Group, DG Bank's
chairman Dr Bernd Thiemann
said that the Unico banks -
Cera in Belgium, France's
Credit Agricole, DG Bank in
Germany, Foreningsbanken of
Sweden, Italy's ICCREA,
Okobank in Finland, RZB-
Austria and Rabobank -
already form a European
network. 'We have been
providing pan-European
payment systems, cooperating
bilaterally and multilaterally
on project development, and
offering vocational tradition
and education for many years,'
he said. 'As a result, Unico and
its members have at their
disposal important
international structures already
in place well in advance of
EMU.'
