Responsibilities for the internal control and
the assurance engagement
Contents Introduction Management report Appendices Corporate governance Consolidated Financial Statements Company Financial Statements
Responsibilities of the Managing Board
The Managing Board of Rabobank is responsible for the
preparation of the internal control statement in accordance
with the COSO criteria as further explained in the paragraph
Criteria in this report, including the identification of the
intended users and the criteria being applicable for the
purposes of the intended users.
The Managing Board is also responsible for such internal
control as it determines is necessary to enable the preparation
of the internal control statement that is free from material
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
The statement of the Managing Board regarding its assessment
of the effectiveness of internal control over consolidated
financial reporting is included in note 54 of the consolidated
financial statements.
Our responsibilities for the assurance engagement
Our responsibility is to plan and perform the assurance
engagement in a manner that allows us to obtain sufficient and
appropriate audit evidence for our opinion.
Our opinion aims to provide reasonable assurance that the
internal control statement is prepared, in all material respects,
in accordance with the COSO criteria as further explained in the
paragraph Criteria in this report. Reasonable assurance is a high
but not absolute level of assurance which makes it possible that
we may not detect all misstatements.
Misstatements may arise due to fraud or error and are
considered to be material if, individually or in the aggregate,
they could reasonably be expected to influence the decisions
of users taken on the basis of the internal control statement.
Materiality affects the nature, timing and extent of our
assurance procedures and the evaluation of the effect of
identified misstatements on our opinion.
Procedures performed
An assurance engagement includes, amongst others,
examining appropriate evidence on a test basis. We have
exercised professional judgement and have maintained
professional scepticism throughout the assurance engagement,
in accordance with the Dutch Standard 3000A, ethical
requirements and independence requirements.
Our main procedures include:
gaining knowledge about the internal control statement and
other engagement circumstances including, depending on
the object, obtaining an understanding of internal controls;
based on this knowledge, assessing of the risks that the
internal control statement contains material misstatements;
responding to the assessed risks, including the development
of an overall approach, and determining the nature, timing
and extent of further procedures;
performing further procedures clearly linked to the identified
risks, using a combination of inspection, observation,
confirmation, recalculation, re-run, analytical procedures and
making inquiries. Such further procedures involve substantive
procedures, including obtaining corroborating information
from sources independent of the entity and, depending on
the nature of the object, testing the actual effectiveness of
the control measures; and
evaluating the adequacy of the assurance information.
Amsterdam, 8 March 2018
PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V.
Original has been signed by P.J. van Mierlo RA
Rabobank Annual Report 2017 - Company financial statements
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