Responsibilities for the information and the
assurance-engagement
Contents Introduction Management report Appendices Corporate governance Consolidated Financial Statements Company Financial Statements
The links to external sources or websites in the report are not
part of the information itself, reviewed by us. We do not provide
assurance over information outside of this report.
The basis for our conclusion and opinion
We conducted our assurance engagement in accordance
with Dutch law, which includes the Dutch Standard 381 ON
Assurance engagements on corporate social responsibility
reports (Assurance-opdrachten inzake maatschappelijke
verslagen'). This engagement is aimed to obtain a combination
of limited and reasonable assurance. Our responsibilities
under this standard are further described in the section
'Our responsibilities for the assurance engagement of the
information'of this Assurance report.
Independence and quality control
We are independent of Rabobank in accordance with the 'Code
of Ethics for Professional Accountants, a regulation with respect
to independence'('Verordening inzake de onafhankelijkheid
van accountants bij assurance-opdrachten'- ViO) and other for
the engagement relevant independence requirements in the
Netherlands. Furthermore we have complied with the 'Code of
Ethics for Professional Accountants, a regulation with respect
to rules of professional conduct'('Verordening gedrags- en
beroepsregels accountants'-VGBA).
We apply the'detailed rules for quality systems'(Nadere
voorschriften kwaliteitsystemen) and accordingly maintain
a comprehensive system of quality control including
documented policies and procedures regarding compliance
with ethical requirements, professional standards and other
applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
We believe that the assurance information we have obtained is
sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our conclusion
and our opinion.
Reporting criteria
Rabobank developed its reporting criteria on the basis of
the Sustainability Reporting Standards of GRI as disclosed
in Appendix 1: "About this report"and Appendix 2:"Non-
financial KPI's results methodology definitions" of the 2017
Annual Report.The information in the scope ofthis assurance
engagement needs to be read and understood in conjunction
with these reporting criteria. Management is responsible for
selecting and applying these reporting criteria. The absence
of a significant body of established practice on which to draw,
to evaluate and measure information allows for different,
but acceptable, measurement techniques and can affect
comparability between entities and over time.
Inherent limitations
The information includes prospective information such as
expectations on ambitions, strategy, plans, estimates and risk
assessments based on assumptions. Inherently, the actual
results are likely to differ from these expectations, due to
changes in assumptions.These differences may be material.
We do not provide any assurance on the assumptions and
achievability of prospective information in the report.
Responsibilities of management
Management of Rabobank is responsible for the preparation
of the information in the report in accordance with the
Sustainability Reporting Standards of GRI and the internally
applied reporting criteria as disclosed in Appendix 1:"About
this report"and Appendix 2:"Non-financial KPI's results
methodology definitions'on the pages 102-106 of the
2017 Annual Report, including the identification of stakeholders
and the definition of material topics to these stakeholders.
The choices made by management regarding the scope of
the information and the reporting policy are summarized in
Appendix 1:"Aboutthis report"and Appendix 2:"Non-financial
KPI's results methodology definitions"on the pages 102-106
of the 2017 Annual Report. Management is responsible
for determining that the applicable reporting criteria are
acceptable in the circumstances.
Management is also responsible for such internal control as
it determines is necessary to enable the preparation of the
information that is free from material misstatement, whether
due to fraud or error.
Our responsibilities for the assurance engagement on
the information
Our responsibility is to plan and perform the assurance
engagement to obtain sufficient and appropriate assurance
information to provide a basis for our conclusion and our opinion.
This review engagement is aimed at obtaining limited
assurance. In obtaining a limited level of assurance, the
performed procedures are aimed at determining the plausibility
of information and are less extensive than those aimed at
obtaining reasonable assurance in an audit engagement.
The assurance obtained in review engagements aimed at
obtaining limited assurance is therefore significantly lower
than the assurance obtained in audit engagements aimed at
obtaining reasonable assurance.
Rabobank Annual Report 2017 - Company financial statements
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