Contents Introduction Management report Appendices Corporate governance Consolidated Financial Statements Company Financial Statements
considers unethical or inappropriate. Departments are
encouraged to incorporate sustainability criteria and incorporate
them in their decision making process. The departments deliver
their sustainability requirements to'Rabobank Concern Inkoop'
(RCI). RCI then will ask the suppliers if they can meet the required
sustainability requirements.The business can use a sustainability
tool, which also offers the option of tracking suppliers'progress
of the suppliers in meeting the requirements, to compare
suppliers' sustainability levels.
Efforts to reduce emissions
Rabobank continues efforts to reduce C02 emissions per FTE
by 10% between 2013 and 2020. We implemented an energy
management system which provides management and control
information to ensure compliance with EEP 2017-2020 and
gives insights into savings made in terms of energy use and
C02 emissions. In 2017, we joined the Carbon Disclosure Project
to publicly disclose data on how much energy we use and our
emissions reduction efforts. We also increased our green gas
purchasing. Rabobank was again climate neutral in 2017 and is
actively reducing C02 emissions related to its own operations.
Rabobank is following the developments of reporting standard
setters on carbon disclosure and climate change reporting.
We recognise that the potential impact of climate change and
carbon reporting through our client base is much larger than
our own footprint. See appendix 3 for more information on our
own C02 emissions.
Safe transfer of data
In the digital world it is more important than ever to ensure
the standardised and secure exchange of financial information.
Since 1 January 2017 Standard Business Reporting has been
the national standard for the digital exchange of business
information in the Netherlands.
SBR is a public-private partnership initiative to exchange financial
data between entrepreneurs, intermediaries, government bodies
(currently Chambers of Commerce, the Dutch tax authorities
and Statistics Netherlands) and private parties.To make financial
data exchange between entrepreneurs and banks more
efficient three Dutch banks - Rabobank, ING and ABN AMRO -
set up'SBR Banken'. In this partnership the banks work with
intermediaries and software suppliers to stimulate secure and
efficient digital data exchange. Rabobank considers SBR to be a
meaningful building block for secure digital data exchange.
Protecting personal data
The intensification and acceleration of technology present
opportunities to innovate and increase effectiveness for our
customers. Big data, for example, can give customers greater
insight into their specific situation. However, it also raises
potential risks for exposure that could result in anything from a
privacy breach to outright discrimination.
Rabobank takes the protection of personal data of clients and
employees very seriously. We avoid using personal data in
Big data analytics unless we have adequate data protection
measures such as data confidentiality and restricted access,
as defined under the European General Data Protection
Regulation. Commercial use of data is carefully monitored
and governed by the Business Data Committee. Data use is
weighted by business value, legal boundaries and ethical
considerations. In this respect, the committee acts as a line
definer in data for the Rabobank Ethics Committee.
Ethics
In order to restore and maintain trust of its stakeholders
and society in general, the financial sector must ask ethical
questions in relation to their business activities. For this reason,
Rabobanks Ethics Committee scrutinises ethical themes and
practical cases which the bank faces. Through its great attention
to these cases, the committee can define justifiable and
sustainable positions regarding to the dilemmas we face.
The Ethics Committee met five times in 2017 and dealt with
18 practical cases relating to themes like responsible use of
data, pricing and fiscal ethics. Generally, cases involve funding
requests but sometimes relate to whether it is desirable to
provide a current account to certain customers. Some of
the issues that arose last year included how to deal with a
customer or prospect trading in air soft weapons, a residents'
association that wanted to stop asylum seekers moving into the
neighbourhood, and a company whose business focuses on
'secondary tickets'for events.
In respect of big data, the Ethics Committee considers the
key question to be whether the use of big data serves the
interests of customers. This pertains for example tackling fraud
and the IBAN-Name Check tool developed in 2017. The Ethics
committee maintains that the language used in communicating
with clients about opting in to data must be 'easy to read'.
Explanations must be formulated clearly and not consist of long
legal agreements and jargon, expecting the customer to simply
accept/not accept by ticking a tick box at the end.
Rabobank prefers an approach to introducing new data services
that is cautious rather than pioneering. As a general rule, if you
cannot explain the value to the customer, then you should not
be doing it. Rabobank should be the bank that makes an ethical
judgement first before giving a go-ahead to the new options.
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