Rabobank Nederland's wholesale banking
business performed well, given the economic
conditions in 2002.The disappointing income
development was offset by cost saving
measures.There was even an improvement on
the gross profit in 2001.
Rabobank Nederland Corporate Clients
Rabobank International
Wholesale banking 29
Wholesale banking
business
Rabobank Nederland Corporate Clients (RNCC) focuses on the full
breadth of the Dutch corporate market. RNCC also operates in
Belgium. Rabobank International (RI) is Rabobank Group's internatio
nal business bank. It operates on a global scale, focusing specifically
on enterprises in the food and agri-business sector and also has
international activities with advanced financial products aimed at
professional counterparts in the financial markets.Group Treasury
provides for Group divisions' liquidity needs and their need for
instruments to hedge their interest rate and currency exposures.
Group Treasury also manages Rabobank Group's balance sheet.
Rabobank Nederland Corporate Clients (RNCC) is primarily responsi
ble for delivering the best possible service to corporate clients
(enterprises, associations and institutions with more than 20 employ
ees and turnover exceeding EUR 10 million) in the Netherlands.
With the formation of RNCC, Rabobank's services to clients in the
corporate market were concentrated within a single formula. RNCC
offers a broad range of financial products and specialist services
and works together with sector teams and regional teams. In co
operation with the local Rabobanks, these teams offer an Allfinanz-
package that is tailored to the client's specific wishes. Partly as a
result of this customer-focused approach, RNCC's market position
was strengthened significantly and last year's result showed a
strong increase. In addition, a survey of the corporate market has
shown that Rabobank scores highest (7.1) on customer satisfaction
compared with other large Dutch banks.
The activities of Rabobank International range from advising on
mergers acquisitions to stock transactions, lending and providing
special financing arrangements. In 2002, Rabobank Group's interna
tional business bank was confronted with a global economic down
turn and the consequences of the corporate accounting scandals in
the United States, which caused downward pressure on income. As
a result of strict cost control, Rabobank International nevertheless
turned in a positive performance.
The activities in both corporate finance and traditional lending con
tributed to this achievement. The second half 2002 showed a clear
increase in structured trade and export financing.
Despite the economic slowdown, the investment banking activities
also performed better than in 2001, with a particularly important
contribution from the arbitrage activities in credit and credit deriva-
