Rabobank

Creation of farmers' banks

The bank is rooted in the ideas of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, the founder of the cooperative movement of credit unions, who in 1864 created the first farmers' bank in Germany. Being a countryside mayor he was confronted with the abject poverty of the farmers and their families. He tried to alleviate this need through charitable aid, but realised that self-reliance had more potential in the long run, and thus converted his charitable foundation into a farmers' bank in 1864. In doing so he created the Darlehnskassen-Verein, which collected the savings of countryside dwellers and provided enterprising farmers with loans.^[6]

This model found a lot of interest in the Netherlands at the end of the 19th century. One of the first of Raiffeisen's followers was Father Gerlacus van den Elsen, who stood at the basis of a number of local farmers' banks in the south of the Netherlands. The model caught on being championed by the clergy and the countryside elites. The mission of the farmers' lending banks was an idealistic one, but they always operated using strict business principles. Controversially, a founding principle of Rabobank's cooperative style was to cooperate in the interest of "warding off the Shylock". The cooperative bank model assured a tight bond between invested capital and the community.

A Rabobank ATM machine in Nieuw-Vennep, The Netherlands

Early cooperation

The bank's traditional headquarters are Utrecht and Eindhoven. In 1898 two cooperative bank conglomerates were formed:

• Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Bank in Utrecht
• Coöperatieve Centrale Boerenleenbank in Eindhoven

The first was formed as a cooperation of 6 local banks and the latter as a cooperation of 22 local banks. These two existed side by side for three-quarters of a century despite their obvious similarities. The reasons for this owed in part to legal disagreements. The most important difference, however, was cultural. The Eindhoven-based Boerenleenbank had a decidedly Catholic signature while the Raiffeisen-Bank had a Protestant background. In the past the Netherlands underwent a process of pillarisation or verzuiling, which in practice meant that members of different religious congregations and political movements essentially lived side by side, without contact between the two. A consequence of this pillarisation was that many villages hosted not one but two local banks, one each for Catholics and Protestants. The close-knit community banking that resulted helped these banks to better control their risks. Consequently, when the Dutch banking sector was devastated by a financial crisis in the early 1920s, these local banks survived largely unscathed.^[7] The religious backgrounds found their way to their organisational structures, as well; the Eindhoven organisation stressed a highly centralised structure, while the Utrecht organisation promoted local autonomy.

Merger

By 1940 the two organisations cooperated with each other, albeit on a limited scale. Three major developments caused a further tightening of the bonds between the two:

• An increase in the number of branches, leading to increased local competition
• A gradual fading of the confessional differences between the two
• An increasing demand for capital in the Dutch industry, which in turn led to higher concentration in the banking business

In 1972 the two organisation merged. The name Rabobank was created from Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank. The organisation chose Amsterdam to be its statutory headquarter due to its historical neutrality in relation to the founding organisations. As of 1980 the central organisation is referred to as Rabobank Nederland.

Overseas expansion

In 1980 Rabobank expanded its international activities as part of its mission to finance global agriculture. In 1990 it established a joint-venture bank in Indonesia by partnering with a local bank, Bank Duta, to form RabobankDuta. Bank Duta subsequently collapsed in the 1998 Asian financial crisis, and Rabobank bought Duta's share to operate solely as PT Bank Rabobank International Indonesia. In 1994 it purchased Primary Industry Bank of Australia (PIBA), which had operations in Australia and New Zealand, and renamed it Rabobank Australia Limited in 2003.^[8] In 1997 it purchased New Zealand–based Wrightson Farmers Finance Limited and renamed it Rabobank New Zealand in 1999. Rabobank became a significant lender to the rural sector in New Zealand with this purchase and used this as a base to expand its lending business further.

Rabo purchased Australian company Lend Lease Agro Business in 2003. In 2008, it expanded its operations in Indonesia by buying two retail banks, Bank Haga and Bank Hagakita.

Direct banking

In 2002 it launched a new internet only savings bank called Rabobank.be. A second online savings banks was launched in 2005 in Ireland under the name of RaboDirect, and then as RaboPlus in New Zealand and two years later in Australia. After a small hiatus new online banks were opened in Poland (2011) and Germany (2012). The advertising campaigns used to promote the savings business in Ireland and New Zealand raised the profile of Rabobank generally in those countries resulting in an increase in not only its savings business but also in its lending businesses. In 2010 Rabobank decided to use the same brand name in Australia and New Zealand for the savings bank and replaced RaboPlus with RaboDirect in these countries.

Acquisitions

Rabobank completed the acquisition of Mid-State Bank & Trust on May 1, 2007, which allows Rabo to expand its services to the Central Coast region of California, United States. In 2010, it also acquired Pacific State Bank, expanding into the Central Valley of California.

Development

Right from the start the cooperative banks prospered. They managed to perform the key tasks of a banking organisation, i.e., bringing excess capital and capital shortages together. These moneylenders stood close to the farmers and were better in judging the creditworthiness of individual farmers than the city banks. This allowed the banks to offer lower interest rates. The local banks were self-governed by members of the cooperation. They adhered to the principle of non-remunerated management and elected the board and the commissioners from among themselves. Only the cashier received a small salary. This has changed, but even as recently as in late 1950s the local bank office was nothing more than the cashier's living room, he generally performed his administrative duties besides another regular job. Much later, in the 1960s the most local banks moved into new and modern offices that reflected their new-found professionalism. The position cashier was replaced by a local bank director. Since 1998 the local bank director is an appointed professional banker and he presides over a board of directors which is chosen from among the members.

Local presence and local autonomy were always important but this hasn't stopped a wave of concentration of the local banks. The major rationale behind this was the need to attain economies of scale in the fields of payments, transaction, processing, staff and capital. Increasing customer demand for standardized and widely available products also played a significant part in this development. Currently the motto is:

this applies to the size of the local bank offices.

Traditionally the bank served mostly farmers and small businesses. Since the introduction of consumer salary accounts in the 1960s the number of retail clients grew exponentially. This has led to Rabobank being a prominent player in the field of savings accounts, checking accounts and mortgages in the Netherlands.

In June 2012 rating agency Moody's downgraded Rabobank's to Aa2 (previously Aaa), with a negative outlook. Due to a new rating methodology in November 2011 by rating agency Standard & Poor's, the credit status was downgraded two steps from AAA to AA. In November 2014 S&P lowered the rating from AA- to A+ with a negative outlook. Rating agency Fitch rates the credit status of the bank AA-, with a negative outlook.

As per the new strategy, Rabobank is planning to exit some markets. In September 2014, Rabobank sold Bank BGZ to BNP Paribas for $1.39 billion.^[9]

Job cuts

In December 2015, Rabobank announced to cut 9,000 jobs by 2018 (3,000 jobs by the end of 2016) and almost a fifth of its current workforce. The policy was to comply with the tougher Basel IV rulebook.^[10]

Ireland

RaboDirect Ireland is an online bank. RaboDirect is part of the Rabobank Group.

In 2009, RaboDirect ran the Life's more interesting when mm tell the truth marketing campaign that included TV commercials which featured staff confessing truths about themselves, and a microsite called Truthbank^[12] where customers could "confess" their own truths.^[13]

RaboDirect was the sponsor of rugby union's Pro12 from the 2011-12 season until 2013–14, it featured teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The deal was announced in June 2011, during which time the league was known as the RaboDirect Pro12.^[14]

On the 21st February RaboDirect announced that it would be closing down its Irish operations from the 16th May 2018, with the loss of 31 jobs.

New Zealand

RaboDirect, originally known as RaboPlus, was launched in February 2006 and was at the time only bank in New Zealand whose parent company was rated AAA by Standard & Poor's (the credit rating has since been downgraded and as of October 2015 is A).^[15]

Australia

On 23 May 2007, Rabobank opened a RaboPlus Internet bank in Australia. On 20 May 2010, the services were rebranded to RaboDirect. RaboDirect is the major partner of the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby side. By 2011 over $6 billion had been gathered in deposits.

Germany

On 20 June 2012, Rabobank opened a RaboDirect in Germany.^[16] Rabobank has had a presence in Germany since 1984. It has operated in the field of corporate finance and has been primarily active in the food and agriculture sector in the country.

Poland

Rabobank operated a direct bank in Poland, but under the Bank BGZ operation and using the name "BGZ Optima". The Polish business including BGZ Optima was subsequently sold to French bank BNP Paribas in December 2013 for around $1.4 billion.^[17]