4
We expect that each
employee knows what
cooperative is, since
is what we stand forJ
SPECIAL REPORT INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF COOPERy
DZ BANK and, last but not least, Rabobank. In the European
banking sector alone, we have a total of 160 million customers
and 50 million members and a joint market share of roughly
20 percent. These are banks that, perhaps with a few
exceptions, steadfastly weathered the financial storm of the
past few years thanks to their cooperative business model.
Seen in this light, it is strange that the new regulations from
governments and regulatory agencies do not seem to have
taken much notice of the cooperative business entity. All
too often, the publically held company model is used as
the Standard for the entire financial sector and cooperative
banks simply have to adjust. But our model with members is
substantially different, with its own legal and capital structure."
A "The United Nations sees the cooperative model as an
important weapon in the battle against poverty and food
shortage. These are themes that we also consider to be
important. For example, our Rabobank Foundation has
already been active for more than 35 years in microfinance
and in setting up farmer-owned and credit cooperatives in
developing countries. But equally important are our efforts as
the world's largest Food Agribusiness bank in entering into
a dialogue with multinationals such as Unilever, Tesco and
Cargill on responsible and sustainable food production."
A 'There is always room for improvement. We expect that
each employee - both in the Netherlands and around the
world - knows what a cooperative is, since that is what we, as
Rabobank, stand for. This has been our point of departure for
the past 113 years. We can also expect this from employees
who work for divisions of the Rabobank Group abroad, which
are not strictly speaking cooperatives, but instead operate
on cooperative principles. Look at Rabobank Australia for
example: officially, it is not a cooperative, but it is a bank
with people who traditionaliy have been tremendously
involved with their customers and who work on the future
together with those customers. Or RNA, where they work
with members' structures to strengthen and preserve the
relationship between the bank and the customer. They all
work from a cooperative concept. And this is how it should
be at Rabobank."»
Participants attend the opening of the General Assembly at the
UN headquaters in New York.
1 ISSUE 29 ''KEI. RI WORLD
