VIEWPOINT
Retail intelligence
Playing the game
Innovating products
Best reputation
Real expertise
£xpansions of Rabobank Internationals country banking' activities are
underway. CurrentlyIreland is being considered as a potential second
home market. Talks have begun to strengthen our position in the Irish Market.
Also, in the United States, a second acquisition is being investigated to boost
the number of sales outlets throughout the agribusiness area. It's no secret
either that additional opportunities in Canada are being explored. In all loca-
tions it's early days. Ongoing commitment to the development of the bank in
Australia and New Zealand, where the Food and Agribusiness sector shows
profitable returns, is also promised.
The first expeetation Van Slingelandt
details is Rl's performance in the finan-
cial markets. 'RI is expected to enhance
the Group's position as an independent
financial organization by transacting in
the international financial markets,' he
says. 'In days gone by, the Group had
more savings than credit. These days
there is more credit outstanding than
savings. In order to continue to provide
the cheapest funding, principally to the
benefit of our local banks, we need to
play the game of currencies and interest
rates in the money markets. The Nether-
lands (NL) is not an influential financial
center, so it's imperative that we are
advantageously positioned in the finan
cial markets in other locations.' Hence
the state of affairs in the international
network - particularly in Structured
Finance, Capital Markets, Rabo
Securities, Treasury Markets and
Group Treasury - is perceived to be of
great consequence to the Group.
Rl's involvement in the financial mar
kets does more than provide capital for
the Group. Commodified product is
also created through Rl's international
financial market mechanisms. 'In addi-
tion to the interprofessional products
we transact with professional counter-
parties such as financial institutions, we
also commodify our ability to play the
markets to support retail clients in NL,
corporate clients the world over, and in
fact, the entire Group,' says Van Slinge
landt. In this way, RI is perceived to be
vital for substantially improving clients'
financial balance sheets. RI is greatly ad-
mired for the creativity that this entails.
However, while interprofessional prod
uct innovation is key to the success of
the Group, the priority for RI now is to
increase sales of these products to busi
ness customers (including those in NL)
from the current 10% to 20%. A realis-
tic target, according to Van Slingelandt.
Product sharing is essentially occurring
in two directions. 'Retail synergies are
being realized whereby RI is providing
distribution channels for other Group
entities' products. For example, in
Ireland, we've started delivering De
Lage Landen's retail product to ACC's
rural network, an expansion of the
"country banking" concept,' Van
Slingelandt ex-plains. The 'country
banking' concept is perceived as the
ideal path to internationalization.
'Rabobank has a reputation as the
number one F&A bank in the world,'
continues Van Slingelandt. 'Through its
"country banking" initiative, RI plays a
large role in perpetuating this. With the
Group's support, RI is expected to
expand "country banking" activities.'
(See Retail intelligence, above.)
Another welcome effect perceived by the
Group with regards to Rl's 'country
banking' and corporate banking activi
ties, is the increase in F&A expertise it
brings about. 'We feel comfortable talk-
ing about F&A issues because we have a
global F&A network feeding our
knowledge. Our agri-retail expertise
strengthens our wholesale F&A posi-
The Word I 5
