Notes to the consolidated financial
statements
7 Corporate information
2 Accounting policies
Contents Introduction Management report Appendices Corporate governance Consolidated Financial Statements Company Financial Statements
The Consolidated financial statements of Rabobank include
the financial information of Cooperative Rabobank U.A. and
the group companies.
The primary accounting policies used in preparing these
consolidated financial statements are set out below.
2.1 Basis of preparation
The consolidated financial statements of Rabobank have
been prepared in accordance with International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the European Union.
The consolidated financial statements have been prepared
on the basis of the accounting policies set out in this section.
Unless otherwise stated, assets and liabilities are accounted for
on the historical cost basis and all amounts in these financial
statements are in millions of euros.
New and amended standards issued by the
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and
adopted by the European Union which do not yet
apply in the current financial year
IFRS 9 Financial Instruments
In July 2014, the IASB published IFRS 9 Financial Instruments
as the replacement for IAS 39 Financial Instruments:
Recognition and Measurement. The new standard became
effective on 1 January 2018 and was endorsed by the EU in
2016. Rabobank will apply the classification, measurement
and impairment requirements retrospectively by adjusting the
opening balance sheet and opening retained earnings as per
1 January 2018, with norestatement of comparative periods.
IFRS 9, in particular the impairment requirements, will lead to
changes in the accounting for financial instruments.
Status of the project:
In 2015 Rabobank established a central programme across
the finance risk functions and in close cooperation with
the business units to implement IFRS 9 within Rabobank.
The global IFRS 9 programme is divided into three work streams
'Classification and measurement, including hedge accounting
(C&M)', 'Reporting'and 'Impairments'.
The programme had three phases for each work stream:
1) Assess Define,
2) Design Develop,
3) Implement.
In the Assess Define phase the gaps that exist in current
working methods, policies, processes and data IT systems
between the requirements of IFRS 9 and the requirements of
IAS 39 (the preceding standard/regulation) has been assessed.
As part of the Design Develop phase, the IFRS 9 programme
has designed the solutions to resolve these gaps across the
several topical areas.
For'Classification and Measurement'the implementation phase
is almost completed.There might, however, be adjustments
to the control framework based on the live operation in 2018.
To implement the IFRS 9 micro hedge-accounting solution new
procedures and IT solutions have come into force.
For'Reporting'the implementation is on track. Rabobank
carried out two parallel runs which uncovered no issues in
the reporting chain, except for the impairment calculations
of the work stream 'Impairments'.The implementation phase
of'Impairments'is a major challenge for the bank because
of the major adjustments to be made in processes, models
and IT environment.The implementation work is not yet fully
completed. In particular, we are still in the process of:
1. validating IFRS 9 models;
2. using the final envisaged data flow architecture;
3. effectively implementing and testing controls to ensure the
completeness and accuracy of data flows to the models and
to ensure the accuracy of specific impairments;
4. improving documentation of input data (including
assumptions) of the calculations in specific impairment files;
5. concluding on the macro-economic scenarios.
Rabobank Annual Report 2017 - Consolidated financial statements
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