conduct required of everyone at Rabobank: employees, managers, directors and internal
supervisors. The cooperative basis is characterised by a focus on long-term customer
relationships and the customer's interests.
Specifically for risk management, Rabobank uses additional principles to assess and mitigate
risks. These principles act as a compass in daily practice and provide the standards for desirable
behaviour at Rabobank:
Every employee is a risk manager: clarifies the ownership of risks: responsibilities in positions/
roles, individual contributions to the risk profile of Rabobank, the way in which we manage
risks, the translation into performance targets, the encouragement of desirable behaviour
and the correction of undesirable behaviour.
Risks are openly discussed: explains the desired behaviour: active discussions regarding
identified risks in various areas, openness regarding dilemmas that arise in our work,
approachability with respect to the way in which risks are dealt with, avoidance of tunnel
vision in the perception of risk, learning from mistakes and avoidance of repetition by
removing the causes and sharing experiences.
Risk management as success factor: stresses how risks are managed: acting within the
established risk appetite.
Risk appetite focuses on the long-term interests of our customers and Rabobank, the
assessment of potential consequences of our choices, careful consideration of risk and return
and appropriate measures based on up-to-date risk analyses.
These principles are further defined in the codes for various themes such as credit risk,
information security, privacy, remuneration and sustainability.
The risk governance supports the risk culture and desirable behaviour. Risk culture is further
supported by:
A structured organisational change in the 'Culture Collective' movement, in which Rabobank
employees and Senior Kader discuss their contribution to the organisational change and their
individual behaviour, the focus on customers and strategic objectives, including in particular
risk and compliance.
Surveys among employees focusing on risk and compliance issues and areas of improvement
for both the organisation and the employees.
Training is offered across the organisation on risk-related issues, such as informing customers
with respect to the risks they take, integrity, privacy and information security. The subjects
and methods are continually under development to keep pace with external and internal
developments and are combined with internal informative campaigns.
Learning from mistakes is a permanent feature with respect to undesired operational risk and
credit risk events. Opening these issues up to discussion and sharing these experiences are
encouraged in orderto avoid repetition in other parts of the organisation.
Individual and departmental targets are in line with the risk appetite and the risk principles as
established in the evaluation system and the Group Remuneration Policy.
Risk appetite
EDTF 7 Rabobank uses an integrated risk management model and a clearly defined risk management
cycle. This concerns the determination of the risk appetite, the preparation of integrated risk
analyses and the measurement and monitoring of risk. Risk management is structured by Group
entity and for the Group as a whole, and is applied on both a top-down and a bottom-up basis.
The risk strategy focuses on continuity and is applied in three pillars, namely the protection of
profit, the retention of solid balance sheet ratios and the protection of identity and reputation.
There is moreover a process of measuring and reporting the risk-return profile, both at Group
level and within the Group entities. Risk is thus integrated in the management information.
82 Annual Report 2014 Rabobank Group
