COVER STORY RABOBANK'S WHOLESALE AMBITION
Achieving Rabobank's ambition to be market leader
in the Dutch wholesale banking sector will take
unparalleled levels of cooperation right across the
bank, from member banks through to the teams
that serve Rabobank's large corporate clients.
Looking at the mid corporate market (companies
with an annual turnover between EUR 10-250
million) we already are the number one, with
ABN AMRO as a runner up and ING in third place.
And the other players in the market - for example
RBS, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank - have a
smaller presence and are more product oriented.
Rabobank's advantage is that it is known as a very
customer-focused cooperative bank, a reputation
it has managed to strengthen during the crisis.
There's a real sense of urgency to Rabobank's drive
to be market leader in the Dutch wholesale market, a sense that if
the bank is to achieve this ambition it has to act - and act right now.
The Netherlands has always been - and remains - key to Rabobank's
international ambitions.
Fred Weenig, Head of Wholesale Clients Netherlands for Rabobank
International: "Over the past 30 years, Rabobank has built up a
mature international network, which we can now offer to the Dutch
market. This is also the perfect time to focus on the wholesale market
in the Netherlands. We already have over 80 percent of the Food and
Agribusiness (F&A) market, around 41 percent of the SME market
and almost 30 percent of the mid corporates in the Netherlands. The
real growth for us is in the more complex part of the mid corporates
segment, which was historically the home base of ABN AMRO with
a market share of more than 60 percent in the year 2000.
Paul Dirken (1955)
has worked for
Rabobank since 1987.
He was a member of
the Board of Directors
of Rabobank Tilburg
and leasing subsidiary
De Lage Landen.
He has also headed
the Corporate Clients
business of Rabobank
Netherlands and was
Chairman of Rabobank
The Hague. Paul has
been Head Business
Banking Rabobank
Netherlands since 2009.
"For Large Corporates we don't measure our position in market share,
as each dient usually has three or more banks in the syndicate. We
have the ambition to become the leading wholesale bank for our
Dutch large corporate clients and fundamental to that strategy will
be our focus on lead positions. We want to be part of every major
transaction, but we also want to lead every deal that we do."
Paul Dirken, Head of Business Banking Rabobank Netherlands:
"Achieving overall leadership in the Dutch wholesale market will
mean acquiring around 750 new clients in the next three years,
so it's a very ambitious target. But the timing is right and the drive
within the organisation to achieve market leadership is tremendous.
ING is puiling back internationally and ABN AMRO isjust starting to
rebuild its international network, yet both have also set their sights
fïrmly on the Dutch corporate market, so it's a matter of now or never."
RI WORLD