Responsible banking
Key promises to Private Banking clients
In its retail services, Rabobank has identified the following four themes in relation to responsible
and sustainable banking:
- transparency: offering fair, straight-forward products, and clearly communicating the
related costs, returns and potential risks;
- accessibility for vulnerable groups: everyone should be able to handle banking matters
independently;
- prevention of financial problems and guidance for consumers in financial difficulties;
- sustainable services: encouraging customers to be more aware of their consumption of
energy and natural resources, and to use them more efficiently.
These themes are an extension of Rabobank Group's strategic policy and our central themes.
Our performance is measured using sustainability performance indicators.
Targets Actual 2012 Target 2012
Percentage of senior citizens who feel that Rabobank makes
banking easy 78% 85%
Customer satisfaction score among customers with
non-performing loans 7.2 7.1
Percentage of retail clients that feel that Rabobank treats its
customers fairly 64% 70%
Percentage of clients that feel that Rabobank provides trans
parent and easy-to-understand information 73% 78%
Sustainable services: 10% reduction on 2011 in use of paper
for client services via Rabobank Nederland 20% 10%
What is remarkable is that Rabobank's sustainability performance indicators for retail clients
are on a downward trend in several respects. This may be due to the dent in the overall image
of the financial sector in 2012, which affects Rabobank too. The reputation of the financial
sector is under serious threat. Over the course of five years, the level of trust in banks in the
Netherlands has plummeted from 72% to 40%. Rabobank still had the best image of all the
large banks among retail clients in 2012.
The drop in customer satisfaction score was also attributable to our inward focus, which
was due, in part, to new rules and regulations for Dutch banking services. This resulted in
longer waiting periods for scheduling personal consultations with customers. Many local
Rabobanks faced the following dilemma: the provision of good and efficient client services
versus the accumulation of mandatory controls to make client papers meet every requirement.
Rabobank started to tighten the parameters for mortgage advice in mid-2012, thereby clearly
delineating the scope of the bank's advisory services and introducing a template for recording
the customer's preferences and the related implications.
Rabobank Private Banking's ambition for the next few years is to further tailor its services to the
needs of its clients never losing sight of the more stringent requirements with regard to the
duty of care and other rules and regulations. As part of this ambition, its products and services
will decrease in complexity. As every customer has different needs and an increasing number
of customers want to be able to take care of their financial business themselves via virtual
channels, Rabobank asks customers what types of services would suit them best, from more
self-reliance to an exclusive form of advisory services and focus on the top of the market. In view
of this, a vision has been developed for the period 2012-2016 under the title The power to bind
(Het vermogen om te binden). In this vision, the bank makes three promises to its customers:
- Your day-to-day banking runs smoothly and efficiently.
- You have financial peace of mind. We help you choose direction and make adjustments,
and we come up with the right solutions.
- We support your socio-economic environment.
The degree of customer satisfaction of Rabobank Private Banking clients is monitored on a
structural basis. The outcome is used as input for improvements in client services. For details
on the key outcomes of this monitoring for 2012, the reader is referred to the section on
Treating Customers Fairly.
34 Annual Report 2012 Rabobank Group