members of the Supervisory Board attended the relevant meetings with the local Rabobanks.
At the end of October, the Supervisory Board held a joint off-site session with the Executive
Board on strategic topics, which included a detailed consideration of governance.
The Supervisory Board is closely following the progress of debates on governance in order to
ensure that the adopted line of thought and the process have the full support of the
Supervisory Board.
One Rabobank: Vision 2016, Mars and Culture Collective
Looking at Vision 2016 - a fundamental innovation of customer service in the Netherlands
through virtualisation and automation - and a number of lessons to be learned arising from the
Libor case, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board extensively discussed the desired
organisation for Rabobank Nederland. In November 2013, the Supervisory Board discussed the
new top structure for Rabobank Nederland and the corresponding revised portfolio allocation
of the Executive Board. In accordance with this newtop structure, the structure of the existing
organisation within Rabobank Nederland that is geared to supporting the local Rabobanks was
adapted in 2014, under the name Mars, in line with Vision 2016. Virtualise, advise and participate
are the three pillars underpinning local customer services. The Executive Board and the
Supervisory Board firmly believe that, particularly in times of limited growth and of cost savings,
there needs to be a clear focus on mutual understanding and cohesion within the organisation.
The feeling of all being part of One Rabobank can be nurtured by taking a greater interest in
each other's activities and by jointly contributing to the Group's results as a whole. This applies
equally to Group entities in the Netherlands and the Group entities abroad. This is why the
Supervisory Board has endorsed the Executive Board's decision to organisationally combine, as
part of Mars, various entities in the international business with the domestic business and to
introduce a Group-wide culture programme.The Group-wide culture programme focuses
primarily on the attitudes and conduct with which the organisational changes entailed by
Vision 2016 and Mars are implemented. During every meeting in 2014, the Supervisory Board
discussed the progress of the Vision 2016 and MARS programmes as well as the culture
programme with the Executive Board. The Supervisory Board expects this programme, in
combination with closer cooperation between the local Rabobanks, Rabobank Nederland and
Wholesale, Rural Retail to contribute to customers' experience of Rabobank as a better bank.
The culture programme has been given the name 'Culture Collective'. The Supervisory Board
arranged to receive detailed information about the culture programme, for instance in a
continuing professional education session.
Assigned compliance duties
Rabobank is required, at present and in the future, as are all other financial institutions, to
comply with laws and regulations. Each local Rabobank has its own separate banking licence
with the associated requirements. Rabobank Nederland exercises assigned compliance duties in
respect of the local Rabobanks. This means that Rabobank Nederland exercises supervision over
the local Rabobanks with regard to controlled and ethical operations, outsourcing, solvency
and liquidity.This duty derives from the Dutch Financial Supervision Act and implements the
supervision that would otherwise be exercised by De Nederlandsche Bank N.V. (DNB) with
regard to the local Rabobanks. In addition, Rabobank Nederland performs monitoring and other
duties with regard to the local Rabobanks pursuant to the collective licence regime in the
context of complying with the conduct supervision that is supervised by the Netherlands
Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).
It has taken a great deal of effort in the past few years for the organisation to ensure that each
separate bank complies with all requirements arising from the banking licence. Although the
aim, in providing direction to and holding accountable the local Rabobanks on the basis of the
prudential supervision role, is to maintain a balance between commerce, efficiency and risk/
Annual Report 2014 Rabobank Group
