4 Rabobank's triple A
status gives us a big
edge,
a time when many
US banks are
struggling with
the credit crisis 9
,W™ New Zealand
Ronald Blok:
New Zealand
subject to good seasons and bad seasons." But Broekhuyse
admits that even he was slightly surprised as how quickly
he and his team were able to grow the Australian business.
"We began with a 3% market share and now have 20% of
the Australian agribusiness market. That's pretty amazing for
a foreign bank."
Fourteen years later, retail banking is still the main focus
of Rabobank International's business in Australia and
New Zealand, says Neil Dobbin, head of rural banking in
Australia and New Zealand. As elsewhere, Rabobank has
a Corporate Clients business, serving major publicly-listed
F&A companies, but 75% of the bank's business comes from
retail banking. 'This covers two types of business for us.
Rural banking, which is funding farmers with loans up of to
AUSS 270 million, and business banking, for family-owned or
private firms in the food, beverage or Agri service industries
with debt requirements of up to AUSS 60 million," says Dobbin.
Retail banking is a pretty big business in Australia, Dobbin
adds, and the biggest part for Rl is the rural banking business.
Rabobank targets the top 25% of the region's F&A producers,
as these are by far the most profitable. "Size really does matter
here, which is why there's been a lot of consolidation in the
farming sector. And it's the biggest farmers the ones that we
target that are growing the fastest and that are most likely
to thrive," he says. That said, one of Rabobank's biggest
competitive edges is the fact that it is a niche player, with a real
focus on F&A, which means it can build close relationships with
clients in this sector, he adds.
This focus on cliënt relationships has also enabled Rabo
AgriFinance, the US farm lender, to build up a nationwide
business with some of the biggest F&A players across the
country. However, in California, Rabobank's retail banking
business is much closerto the Rabobank universal banking
model seen in the Netherlands, Cor Broekhuyse says. Headed
by Ronald Blok, CEO of Rabobank NA, the fast-growing US retail
bank has 93 branches spanning 700 miles in California, from
Sacramento to the Mexican border. And again the nature of the
business was determined by the acquisitions the bank made.
'The three California banks we've acquired in the past five years
are all community banks, very similar to the member banks in
the Netherlands," says Ronald Blok. 'They all have very close ties
to the local communities. What this means in the US is that you
serve the entire community. That includes retail customers and
local small and medium-sized businesses, or SMEs, including
agribusiness producers."
1 8 issue 17 THE WORD