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Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey 2010:
Country risk 2010:

Country risk 2010:

Bi-annual Country risk survey monitoring political and economic stability of 186 countries

October 1998

Rabobank seeks the global niche


It's the only private-sector bank to have retained its triple-A rating. What's more, Rabobank is the only foreign bank to have an office in Wagga Wagga. This cooperative, with 467 member banks in the Netherlands, was viewed as a domestic farmers' bank. But for three years that has been changing. First there were moves into insurance and asset management in the Netherlands. Then, for the past year-and-a-half, Rabobank International has been developing as an investment bank. Antony Currie spoke to Henk Visser, member of Rabobank Group's managing board, and Alex von Ungern-Sternberg, head of global investment banking.




In the last two years, Rabobank has bought a stake in an asset management firm (Robeco), has been expanding in investment banking and has started negotiations to merge with an insurance firm (Achmea). What are the reasons behind this?

Henk Visser: During the 1990s we have seen the non-interest income of the Rabobank Group increase much faster than interest income. Not just in Rabobank International, where more than 50% is non-interest income, but also in the local retail network. We're convinced that this institution has a very active role to play with depositors, borrowers and investors, and this has led to us shifting from being the sole investor with our retail and corporate clients to acting as an intermediary. That is why we formed an alliance with Robeco, taking a 50% stake in 1997, with an option on the other 50% which we're going to exercise in a couple of...


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