Sustainably successful together and Banking for Food
The Supervisory Board places great importance on Rabobank's focus on its members, customers
and society, and is thoroughly aware of the responsibility that a conscientious implementation
of these core values entails. This concerns sustainable developments in the widest sense.
During the year under review, the Cooperative Affairs Committee considered a range of
cooperative and sustainability-focused topics on which it exchanged views with and issued
advice to the Executive Board. The full Supervisory Board likewise discussed these topics with
the Executive Board on various occasions. In particular, in August 2014 the Supervisory Board
gave its approval to the sustainability strategy 'Sustainably successful together'. The Supervisory
Board also discussed Banking for Food with the Executive Board in 2014. That is Rabobank's
vision of food security worldwide and the bank's role in it. Banking for Food is currently being
worked out in greater detail.
Strategic developments
In December 2013, the Executive Board, with the approval of the Supervisory Board, sold the
majority of Rabobank's shareholding in Bank BGZ to BNP Paribas Group. The reasons for the sale
were the required scale of Bank BGZ, as well as the interest from other parties in expanding
their activities in Poland and our growing focus on food agri. Since December 2013, a number
of developments have occurred that necessitated changing some elements of the transaction.
The final sales transaction also includes the activities of Rabobank Polska, which were integrated
in Bank BGZ in June 2014. At the end of 2014, the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board held
a two-day meeting to share initial views of the future to prepare for the Strategic Framework
2017-2020.
ICT
The Supervisory Board exchanged views with the Executive Board on such issues as the stability
of the IT infrastructure, the progress of IT development in the context of Vision 2016 and other
major IT projects, information security, logical access control, combating cybercrime, business
continuity management and synergy between the systems of the various Group entities.
The progress of the migration to the new European payment standard SEPA (Single Euro
Payments Area) was a recurring item on the agendas of the Supervisory Board, the Risk
Committee and the Audit Committee in 2014. The Supervisory Board discussed an analysis of
the network disruptions that Rabobank experienced in July 2014 with the Executive Board and
received information on the improvement measures in this area.
Employers' role
On the advice of the Appointments Committee, the Supervisory Board appointed Mr van
Nieuwenhuizen as a member of the Executive Board with effect from 24 March 2014. Jan van
Nieuwenhuizen has many years of international banking experience and can look back on a
versatile career within the Rabobank organisation. The Supervisory Board believes that he will
contribute the right expertise and qualities to the Executive Board. On 1 July 2014, Mr Draijer
entered the employment of Rabobank. After having prepared intensely for his role during a
three-month period, on 1 October 2014 he took over as Chairman from Mr Minderhoud, who
had served as Chairman of the Executive Board since 29 October 2013. The Supervisory Board
proceeded - on the advice of the Appointments Committee - with this appointment because
Wiebe Draijer as a versatile Chairman of the Executive Board with business and strategic
expertise and social leadership is the right man in the right place, given the challenges facing
the Rabobank organisation at present and in the near future. Wiebe Draijer has a proven ability,
on the basis of unifying leadership, to create bridges between different parties with divergent
interests. The Supervisory Board is very grateful that Rinus Minderhoud was prepared to serve
as Chairman of the Executive Board as of 29 October 2013, after the then Executive Board
122 Annual Report 2014 Rabobank Group
