Dear colleaguesy
EDITORIAL
lt is summertime and in most countries people are
preparing to enjoy their well-deserved holidays.
Personally, I always ftnd this a good time to reflect on
the first half of the year. A lot has happened these past
few months. The credit crisis is now also starting to
affect our clients. We see a clear downward trend of
consumer trading and increasing supplier default risk.
This, coupled to the reduced availability of working
capital and growing unemployment rates affecting
consumer budgets, will lead to our clients facing hard
times in keeping their cash flow and balance sheet
ratios on level. Being an all finance market leader in
the Netherlands and a leading F&A bank worldwide,
we as Rabobank feel the pain of our clients, both large
and small. Consequently, it will be a challenge for us
to meet our targets for this year. Based on our solid
and conservative banking history, I have however
great confidence that Rabobank Group and Rabobank
International will come out of this experience stronger.
This edition of The Word is dedicated to our
cooperative, its structure, technical features and values
and what they mean for Rabobank International. Bert
Heemskerk, who recently ended his very successful
banking career at Rabobank, provides his view on
the future of our cooperative. He states, just like
Bert Mertens in the cover story, that the long-term
success of the Rabobank Group is linked to the future
incorporation of elements of the cooperative in our
regions' operational models. The goal of this effort is
not to copy the Dutch model, as in other countries
different interpretations of the cooperative features may
be more appropriate. No matter the approach, the goal
is to enable clients to have a clear 'say' and stake in the
bank's future, ensuring that we stay focused on what we
are good at and do not take unnecessary risks.
It is important to fully understand what it means to be
working in a cooperative organisational model, such as
the one we have at Rabobank, and the effect this has
on current and future market circumstances. We see
that the general opinion on cooperative organisations
is changing. There is an increasing association between
cooperative structures and inherent stability and
endurance. Prominent magazines and periodicals
like The Economist, The Banker and the New York
Times recently published articles on cooperatives
and mentioned Rabobank as one of the most stable
companies in the world due to its cooperative structure.
In some of these articles we are even called dull. Not in
the negative sense of the word, but in a way that stands
for risk mitigation, solid banking and knowing what you
are good at (in our case: Food and Agribusiness).
Staying true to our cooperative roots and further
developing them for the future is the right path for
Rabobank to grow. It is about knowing, listening to
and caring for our clients. But it is also about working
together across the boundaries within the bank. And
I am glad to see this is happening on different levels
in the Rl organisation and across the different Rabo
entities like Rabo Development, Rabo Foundation and
Rl. These are the kind of collaborations that make our
company groundbreaking, successful and trustworthy.
Enjoy your holidays, have a rest and let's get ready for
the next half year.
Best regards,
Sipko Schat
issue 20 THE WORD