Wholesale banking
Rabobank Nederland's wholesale banking business
succeeded in achieving a marked growth in results
in 2003.The quality of the services to the Dutch
corporate market earned it the title 'Corporate
Bank of the year'.Two foreign acquisitions helped
to further realise the strategic ambitions.
Rabobank Nederland Corporate Clients
Rabobank International
Wholesale banking 35
Rabobank Nederland Corporate Clients focuses on the full breadth of
the Dutch corporate market. Rabobank International is Rabobank
Group's international business bank. It operates on a global scale,
focusing specifically on enterprises in the food and agri-business sectors
and also has international activities with advanced financial products
aimed at professional counterparties 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 responsible for the
service to corporate clients (enterprises, foundations and institutions
with more than 20 employees and turnover exceeding EUR 10 million)
in the Netherlands. At RNCC, Rabobank's services to clients in the
corporate market are concentrated within a single formula. In 2003, the
integrated services to the food and agri-market in the Netherlands were
added to RNCC's responsibilities. 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 successful formula, a joint survey carried
out by research agency Vallstein and Dutch financial newspaper Het
Financieele Dagblad singled out Rabobank as the best bank for the
corporate market.
The activities of Rabobank International range from advising on mergers
and acquisitions to stock transactions, lending and providing special
financing arrangements. Rabobank International serves corporate and
retail clients abroad and provides specialised products to both corporate
and professional clients at home and abroad.
In the year under review, Rabobank International exercised strict cost
control. In combination with strong income growth despite the less
favourable circumstances, this yielded a handsome increase in operating
profit, with major contributions from the activities in corporate finance,
traditional lending and the capital markets.
Exceptionally warm weather;
almost but not quite the hottest
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summer on record.