Welcome to Rabobank's Annual Report
As a customer-oriented cooperative, Rabobank is driven to create value for our customers, clients and
other stakeholders. This year, again, we have taken steps to make our reporting more relevant to all our
stakeholders by showing our value creation model from angles that matter to them.
Contents Foreword Management report Corporate governance Consolidated Financial Statements Company Financial Statements Pillar 3
The 2016 Annual Report is not just a review of financial
achievements. Instead, it takes an integrated approach,
highlighting the value creation and impact of Rabobank.
By providing both financial and non-financial information, we
hope to give our stakeholders a clear picture of the added value
we provide for our customers and society.
This approach rests on two pillars: our value creation model
and materiality matrix. The value creation model is about
how we create economic, social and ecological value through
our capital resources, business model and strategic priorities.
Our key material themes in the materiality matrix are those
topics that are of strategic interest to our stakeholders and to
Rabobank's long-term success.
Rabobank's mission is to make substantial contributions to
welfare and prosperity in the Netherlands and to feeding the
world sustainably. Our ambition is to be the leading customer-
oriented bank in the Netherlands and the leading food agri
bank worldwide. Our strategy is to offer value-added products
and services to our customers in the Netherlands and in Food
Agri in the world, and become a rock-solid bank with strong
financial capital and liquidity buffers for financial solidity and
high ratings.
The Integrated Reporting Framework of the IIRC (International
Integrated Reporting Council) served as a foundation in the
preparation of the content and outline of our management
report. The management report is prepared in accordance
with the comprehensive option of the fourth generation of the
Global Reporting Initiative guidelines (GRI G4). The GRI G4 Index
is presented in Appendix 5.
Continuous stakeholder dialogue1
We give high priority to a strategic, constructive and proactive
dialogue with our stakeholders. In addition to a year-round
continuing stakeholder dialogue, we base the list of material
reporting topics on the dialogues we had during the year
with the following stakeholder groups: customers, members,
employees, non-governmental organisations, government
agencies, politicians and supervisory bodies and other banks.
We thus have a clear view of what our stakeholders believe
is important.
Our environment
Every year we analyse external trends and developments that
affect our work. The year 2016 saw many changes in terms of
consumer behaviour, technology, innovation, market players,
regulations, the economy and society. All these new trends
and developments present a number of opportunities and
challenges for Rabobank.
Our conclusions in a nutshell:
Customer needs are changing. Increasingly, face-to-face
contact is being replaced by digital interaction. We therefore
need to invest in the quality of our services and innovation to
improve customer services.
Advances in technology call for a proactive, efficient
customer approach and provide us with opportunities to
combine online services with personal attention.
There is ample opportunity to further leverage our sector
knowledge and national/international network to the benefit
of our clients and environment.
To meet customer needs, we will proactively monitor
innovations in, and related to, the financial industry and we
will enter into strategic partnerships.
Driven by the current economy and other factors, we need to
operate on a cost-effective basis.
Regulators and new legislation (such as the proposed reforms
to Basel III) are having a growing impact on the ways in which
banks can provide their services.
Various social changes demonstrate a global trend towards
the cooperative model. Together we are stronger in
a changing and uncertain world.
1 More insights into our dialogues with stakeholders is provided in
Appendix 4 and in chapter Engaging with Stakeholders.
6 Rabobank Annual Report 2016
