De Lage Landen
If we optimise group-wide
cooperation and leverage synergies,
we 11 come out even stronger
Frans Overdijk, Chief Financial Officer
CF O) of De Lage Landen
COVER STORY BANKING AFTER BASEL III
Frans Overdijk
4
De Lage Landen (DLL) is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Rabobank,
providing asset-based financing
to its customers in more than
35 countries. The nature of DLL's
business implies certain funding
requirements. So in what ways
will Basel III affect DLL's business
model? DLL Chief Financial
Officer, Frans Overdijk: "As with
any regulatory change, it will lead
to a re-appraisal of what we are
doing as a business, including
discussions about the impact
it will have on our customers,
pricing, and product offerings.
However, the full impact for DLL
will to a large extent depend
on how Rabobank chooses to
interpret the proposals in relation
to its subsidiaries." With funding
a potential issue for the whole of
the Rabobank Group, including
DLL, Overdijk explains that the
company will look for opportuni-
ties to improve its funding posi-
tion. "It will be challenging, but
we definitely see ways to mitigate
the possible effects of Basel III.
We will have to tap into our in-
novative powers. Securitisation,
for example, was already being
investigated as one of the ways to
improve our funding position, but
Basel III will speed this up. We will
consider syndication as a means
to better manage the available
capital and look for sources of
income that require less capital.
On the other hand, let's keep
things in proportion. In terms of
ECAP (economie capital: which is
the amount of risk capital required
to cover the risks, such as credit
risk or operational risk, ed) alone,
we don't foresee significant issues.
Some 25 percent of our portfolio
is F&A-related and like any hard
asset type of business, the F&A
business consumes relatively
little capital. Last but not least,
I am confident that if we optimise
group-wide cooperation and
leverage synergies within the
whole of the Rabobank Group,
we'll come out even stronger."
is i 'i R1 WORLD
