Next phase
Growth through cooperation
Cor Broekhuyse joined Rabobank in 1976 and witnessed the
earliest discussions about overseas expansion. The bank made
the decision to establish the first international offices based on
two main criteria,' he says. 'Firstly, some of our big F&A clients in
the Netherlands feit that if we wanted to be taken seriously about
being their house bank, we should be prepared to follow them all
over the world. Secondly, Rabobank wanted to be represented in
the world's major capital markets, the most important of which
are New York and London. Consequently, we set up a New York
branch, which opened in 1981and by 1984, we had also
established a London branch.'
Realising that simply serving Dutch clients' interests in the United
States would be insufficiënt to sustain a New York branch,
Rabobank decided early on to extend its traditional focus on F&A
to the United States. The first 20 years were characterised by
gradual growth, during which we established a strong position in
the American F&A sector,' Broekhuyse continues. 'At the same
time, we developed our position in the capital markets and built
up a good Global Financial Markets (GFM) management team
and developed a high-quality Structured Finance operation.'
'When I arrived at the New York office, in 2001, Rabobank in the
Americas consisted of just 12 offices,' Broekhuyse says. 'My brief
was to broaden Rabobank's operations in line with those in
Australia, where I had spent the previous six years. I was charged
with extending our "country banking" initiative from Australia to
the United States, and we soon introduced farmer financing in
addition to our services to F&A corporate customers.'
Through a series of acquisitions (see
sidebar), Rabobank made a significant
move into retail banking and farm lending
in the United States. Over the past few
years, we have seen exponential growth
in the region, from the 12 offices in 2001
to 112 at the end of 2005. Not all ofthis
growth has been achieved through
acquisitions, however. In 2005, Rabo
AgriFinance (RAF) opened 12 new offices
in the United States, and Rabobank
International (Rl) opened six new offices
in Brazil.
'Over the past 25 years, Rl has built up a
wide range of capabilities in the Americas,
which we're trying to use in a broader
context,' Broekhuyse explains. 'For
example, when we acquire a retail bank, it
will almost certainly have its own systems
and procedures that are different from
ours. Our specialists in the New York-
based IT Group help to integrate new
acquisitions within a single network. We
also try to exploit synergies between
corporate and retail banking. Corporate
Account Managers sell retail products to
their clients, while RAF Account Managers
provide specialist land financing to
corporate clients.'
'In addition, the acquisitions themselves
require a high level of legal expertise,
which we have here in New York. For
years, we have been promoting the cross-
selling of GFM products to Corporate
Banking and, recently, to agricultural
The Word 5
