Rabobank International made
a handsome contribution to
the Groups' results.
Asia
Global product groups
Global Financial Markets
Direct Banking
a businesses affinity to the food agri sector
and offering complex financial products and
services to large cooperatives and enterprises
in the food agri industry.
The announced acquisition of Bank Haga and
Bank Hagakita, in Indonesia, marked the start
in 2006 of the establishment of international
retail activities in the Asia region. This acquisition
has been finalised in early 2007. Both banks
have extensive networks, with branch offices in
Bali, Java and South Sumatra. This acquisition
gives Rabobank access to the small and
medium-sized enterprises sector in Indonesia.
2006, nearly 19,000 clients in New Zealand
were using the RaboPlus Internet bank. Apart
from New Zealand, Rabobank operates
Internet banks in Belgium and Ireland. At 31
December 2006, the Direct Banking activities
abroad had a total of 102,000 (51,000) clients.
In the year under review, savings increased by
94% to EUR 3.1 (1.6) billion.
Global Financial Markets operates in the inter
national financial markets. Besides customer-
focused activities, this department handles
Rabobank aims at further professionalisation of
the existing service provision by these banks
and plans to offer new financial products
through them.
Besides the integration of the recently acquired
retail banks, Rabobank International will focus
on the further development of the commercial
effectiveness of these activities in 2007.
In early 2006, Rabobank extended its Direct
Banking network by opening its third Internet
bank abroad, in New Zealand. In addition,
preparations were made to open a fourth
Internet bank in early 2007. At 31 December
the trade in money market products for the
day-to-day management of the liquidity
position, the credit risk and the market risk of
Rabobank Group and its clients. Examples
include currency products, bonds and deriva
tive products. In 2005, Global Financial Markets
started trading in CO2 emission rights. In 2006,
this resulted in transactions with, among
others, Enercon, a wind turbine manufacturer
and manager of wind farms in India, and
Agrosuper, Chile's largest pig-farming enterprise.
In addition, Global Financial Markets offers
capital market solutions by securitising or
restructuring specific risks or cash flows of
enterprises or financial institutions. For
example, a perpetual Aegon bond was placed
42 Rabobank Group Annual Report 2006
