Flash
Sometimes developments go faster than we can plan for. The current July issue of the
What's NewS was ready for distribution one day after the announcement that Ton
Toebosch stepped down. The content of the July issues is however still very relevant. As
Rik van Slingelandt says: 'I expect no major changes in the strategy of RI and in the
course set out to create DGRI'. A new captain on board but the ship is on course!
That is why we have decided to distribute the What's NewS and to add a NewsFlash with
the first impressions of Rik van Slingelandt.
Van Slingelandt to move merger forward
From 1 August, Rik van Slingelandt will take on the direct day-to-day
management of RI and of the merger process with DG. Ton Toebosch, who came
to RI from De Lage Landen last November, has decided to step down. The
reason for his departure is due to differences on policy relating to the
creation of DGRI. We ask Van Slingelandt for answers to some of your
questions.
In a letter to senior RI management, executive board chairman Hans Smits
admits that Ton Toebosch's decision to leave took them by surprise. His
departure was sparked by differences in insight on how the creation of a
Group Treasury should be structured. The decision on the creation of a Group
Treasury had been taken months ago. The executive board's decision to push
ahead has a number of underlying fundamentais. No one is in any doubt that
the creation of a Group Treasury is in line with the development of Rabobank
as a broad-based financial organization, Van Slingelandt notes. In
addition, there are new regulations coming out of Basel which come into
force in 2003. They require us to optimize liquidity, risk and capital at
Group level. So we will be pursuing a Group Treasury structure which will
meet the needs of the organization itself, the regulatory authorities and,
of course, our commitments to our partners in DGRI. Let there be no
misunderstanding here. We have weighed all these considerations carefully,
including the fact that this kind of activity, which you could call the
'bankers' banking role, cannot be partly owned by another organization. We'11
be working with experts from RI on how to structure this key activity.
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