Contents Introduction Management report Appendices Corporate governance Consolidated Financial Statements Company Financial Statements
Rise in online loan and lease applications from corporate
customers
SME entrepreneurs can apply for a financing facility with
Rabobank online. In 2017 37% of the loan applications under
1 million euro were done digitally, an increase of 9% compared
to 2016. Rabobank offers customers online and real-time
options to apply for leasing to fund their business equipment.
Starters
We encourage people who are starting a business to'start
strong'by gaining inspiration and knowledge from successful
entrepreneurs who share their honest and, above all, personal
stories about decisive moments in their entrepreneurship.
Ikgastarten.nl is the online knowledge platform for starters
in business. The local Rabobanks organised many events for
starters in 2017.
New innovations
Several innovations relate to helping entrepreneurs continue
to grow. Tellow provides self-employed professionals with a
fully automated bookkeeping system that is linked to a bank
account. Since Tellow supports self-employed professionals in
their bookkeeping, they have more time and opportunity to
focus on growing their business. It also gives the entrepreneur
better insight into income and expenses, a sound basis for
financial decision-making.
Entrepreneurs can use the payment request function (betaal-
verzoek) in the Rabo Banking App to collect payments due from
their customers. This gives the entrepreneur an at-a-glance
overview of which requests have been paid.
Derivatives
In March 2016, the Dutch Minister of Finance appointed an
independent committee, which on 5 July 2016, published
a recovery framework (the Recovery Framework) on the
reassessment of Dutch SME interest rate derivatives.
Rabobank announced its decision to take part in the Recovery
Framework on 7 July 2016. The final version ofthe Recovery
Framework was published by the independent committee on
19 December 2016.
With respect to the (re-)assessment ofthe interest rate derivatives
of its Dutch SME business customers and the advance payments
made, Rabobank recognised a provision of 450 (2016: 665).
Implementation ofthe Recovery Framework is expected to be
finalised in 2018. At year-end 2017, Rabobank's advance
payments amounted to EUR 267 million and an addition of
EUR 51 million was made.
Earning customer trust
Rabobank believes that earning customer trust begins by truly
listening to the needs and concerns of all stakeholders and
by showing our commitment to our cooperative principles of
customer participation, long-term relationships, sustainability
and financial solidity. We have launched a number of initiatives
to grant customers easier access to new, relevant products,
to focus on sustainability and banking ethics, to improve
communication and problem resolution, and to increase
transparency.
Reputation
Rabobank's reputation in the Netherlands showed a positive
trend. We measure reputation using The RepTrak® Monitor, a
tool ofthe Reputation Institute. Every month a representative
sample ofthe general public is surveyed onlineThis leads to
the RepTrak® Pulse score (as a proxy for trust), which is based on
four statements regarding the esteem, good feeling, trust and
admiration that consumers feel towards a company. Rabobank's
Pulse score improved from 66.1 in 2016 to 69.5 in 2017.
Reputation scores
based on RepTrak
80
50
40
30
1111111111
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
The RepTrak® Monitor tracks 23 key performance indicators
grouped around seven reputation dimensions that appear to be
most effective in getting stakeholders to support the company:
products and services, innovation, workplace, governance,
citizenship, leadership and performance ofthe company.
Each driver is broken down into several attributes that give a
more detailed level of assessment. Rabobank demonstrated
improvement in all dimensions, especially Governance and
Products Services.
Rabobank
2016
2017
Gap with 2016
RepTrak® Pulse
66.1
69.5
3.4
Products services
67.0
67.8
0.8
Innovation
63.7
64.0
0.3
Workplace
63.7
63.8
0.1
Governance
60.2
62.7
2.5
Citizenship
66.4
66.9
0.5
Leadership
64.8
65.3
0.5
Performance
68.1
68.8
0.7
Rabobank Annual Report 2017 - Management report
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