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Best bank: Rabobank |
The Dutch banking market has experienced unprecedented change with Fortis’s acquisition of ABN Amro’s local businesses and ING’s decision to merge its Postbank and ING brands.
But while the Netherlands’ two biggest publicly traded banks have been reorganizing, the Rabobank, has been benefiting from both its consistent strategy and recent innovations. Net profits from the domestic retail business rose an impressive 24% in 2007 as the group increased its share of the mortgage and savings markets by two percentage points each to 28% and 41%, respectively.
In a market that’s already home to some of the most developed direct banking products in the world, Rabobank distinguished itself by launching the first internet bank for business with neither account managers nor branches. Bizner, launched in early 2007, enables entrepreneurs to purchase, manage and change all basic financial products including loans, time deposits and credit cards themselves and now has 7,500 clients.