About this
Report
Chairman's
Foreword
Corporate
Management Report Appendices Governance
Consolidated Financial Company Financial
Statements Statements
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We are committed to staying close to our customers, whether
they choose to use our digital channels (i.e. desktop or app), our
client services call centers ('Rabobank Klantenservice'), our
physical branches (the local Rabobanks) or at the farmer's kitchen
table. Rabobank has implemented a new operating model, laying
the foundation for safeguarding our local presence through
market teams that are supported by specialist teams. This model
lets us focus on what matters most to us: adding value for our
customers. Local market teams provide the best advice for clients
in their region. Their active engagement in local communities
gives local market teams an insider view on their clients' needs
and preferences, so they can quickly address them.
The services that the local Rabobanks provide through ourdigital
channels are backed by robust and efficiently organized client
services call centers. Customers can count on us 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. Rabobank Klantenservice is located throughout the
Netherlands offering regional employment and local
engagement.
Financial Sector Gatekeeper
As a gatekeeper to the financial system, Rabobank is strongly
committed to preventing the use of Rabobank's products and
services for Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorist Financing (TF)
purposes and prevent violations of Sanctions Regulations. For
that purpose, Rabobank has developed a set of measures that
together contribute to an effective Anti-Money Laundering
(AML), Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) and Sanctions
Framework. This AML/CTF and Sanctions Framework is overseen
by a global committee at board level and executed across the
first, second and third lines of the Rabobank network.
Driven by our ambition in this context, new regulations and
regulatory enforcement actions related to AML in the United
States and the Netherlands, including remarks on the quality of
our client files, we have started a change program. In addition to
improving our ongoing Customer Due Diligence processes we
will also conduct remediation work in the Netherlands with a
dedicated workforce that will increase to 250 FTE in 2020. The
change program further includes other initiatives to globally
enhance Rabobank's AML/CTF and Sanctions Framework. As part
of the program, Rabobank renewed its policies, is introducing
new systems and tooling, and has strengthened its governance.
Furthermore, we provided extensive additional training
worldwide to all staff to ensure we know our customers inside and
out and to enhance our transaction-monitoring capabilities.
Throughout these efforts we remain in constant dialogue with the
relevant national and international regulators. Rabobank is
investing significantly in its workforce and in new technology to
create a future-proof digitally enabled AML/CTF and Sanctions
Framework. This framework will have to anticipate on changes in
the industry, from new market participants and service providers
in different roles to changing ML/TF methods.
This development requires Rabobank to adapt its own tools and
techniques. Rabobank, being one stakeholder is only part of the
solution to control AML/CTF risks sector wide. We will work with
other market participants and the public sector to explore which
form of (increased) cooperation works best to achieve a
comprehensive sector wide approach to mitigate AML/CTF risks.
Stimulating Transparency
We believe it is important to be open to what customers think of
our service. We use customer feedback to improve our services
and we participate in the Dutch Banking Confidence Monitor
('Vertrouwensmonitor Banken'), a survey that gauges the trust our
customers have in us and their opinion of our services and
products. Rabobank's 2018 results were stable and comparable
to the sector as a whole. Acting on the outcomes of this survey,
we prioritized topics for improvement, such as even better
customer knowledge in semi-automatic asset management and
adjusting revolving credits to better fit their circumstances.
In order to restore and maintain trust of its stakeholders and
society in general, the financial sector must grapple with ethical
questions about its business activities. Rabobank's Ethics
Committee scrutinizes ethical themes and practical cases. It met
five times in 2018 and dealt with themes like guidelines for
employees who deal professionally with cryptocurrencies, the
future of work, the legalization of cannabis in Canada and ethical
aspects of the food transition. Concerning cannabis, the Ethics
Committee had no objection to financial involvement with
cannabis for medicinal use, but for recreational use the
Committee preferred to distinguish between edible and
drinkable cannabis products with addictive and/or psychoactive
effects and those without. Rabobank's decision to withdraw from
tobacco manufacturing means that smokable cannabis is a no-
go. At the end of 2019 Rabobank intends to review the cannabis
issue.
Annual Report 2018 - Management Report
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