Contents Management report Corporate governance Consolidated financial statements Financial statements Pillar 3
7.4 million customers
1.9 million members
Local Members Council
Local supervisory body
General Members Council
Supervisory Board
Rabobank
Management team of the local Rabobanks
Directors' conference
Executive Board (of Rabobank)
New governance structure: Unity and cooperative banking
Cooperative pillar
Clients of Rabobank in the Netherlands can become members
of the cooperative. Currently, more than 25 percent of our
customers are members.The connection to customers in the
local area of operation and the pooling of all local Rabobanks
into a larger cooperative are fundamental to Rabobank's
decentralised management. In the new governance, local
Rabobanks have their own responsibilities within collectively
agreed frameworks. To collectively stand strong and enjoy
economies of scale, local Rabobanks cooperate with the
supporting organisation. In the new set-up - as before 2016
members are connected to their own local Rabobanks through
so-called member departments.
Local Members Councils
There are about 100 member departments in the Netherlands.
Each department is assigned to one or more constituencies
which appoint, suspend or dismiss the members of the local
Members Councils, consisting of 30 to 50 members.The role
of the Members Councils remains similar to that in the old
situation. Put simply, the Members Council represents the
interests of Rabobank's clients and members.The members
serving on these councils have diverse backgrounds and
focuses; they bring in the outside world in order to keep the
local Rabobank firmly on track. The Members Councils are the
primary benchmark for the quality of local Rabobanks'financial
services and their actual contribution to the sustainable
development of their field of operation. In this respect, local
Members Councils have an important say in how cooperative
funds are used and they fulfil a signalling function: they are
the 'eyes and ears' of the managementteams of the local
Rabobanks.They also act as a sparring partnerfor both the
management teams of the local Rabobanks and the local
supervisory bodies, and have formal duties and responsibilities,
such as the right to approve the merger or demerger of a local
Rabobank and to advise the chairman of the local Rabobank's
managementteam on membership policy. Recommendation,
appointment, suspension and dismissal of members of the
management team of the local Rabobank, including the
chairman, are also among their responsibilities. Moreover, local
Members Councils assess the financial performance of local
Rabobanks, the policies as implemented by the chairmen of
local Rabobanks' management teams as well as the supervision
exercised by the members of the local supervisory body.
Local supervisory bodies
Local supervisory bodies consist of three to seven members
and are part of the department in question. Local supervisory
body members are appointed by and accountable to their
local Members Council.The members of the local supervisory
body contribute to closer connections between the members
of the local Rabobank and the community and between the
local Rabobank and the cooperative Rabobank.To underline
and reinforce the bonds between the cooperative and local
Rabobanks, members of the local supervisory body are required
to be members of the cooperative.
Local supervisory bodies have important duties and
responsibilities.The local supervisory body also exercises the
functional employer's role in relation to the management team
chairman in the local Rabobank.The main approval rights of
the local supervisory body include (i) appointment, suspension
and dismissal of the other members of the local management
team members; (ii) specific decisions ofthe chairman of the
management team ofthe local Rabobank; (iii) the annual plan
and budget, and (iv) the membership policy. Local supervisory
155 Corporate governance
