Rabobank - Organisation Structure

Organisation Structure

The Rabobank Group consists of a network of local banks, Rabobank Nederland and several daughter organisations. Formally the local Rabobanks are the mother organisation of Rabobank Nederland, their central organisation. The local banks are facilitated by Rabobank Nederland to serve their customers and not the other way around as is often the case with traditional banking organisations. Employees of the group do not routinely speak of a headquarters but prefer to speak of Rabobank Nederland, which is their daughter organisation.

The central organisation does occasionally overrule the autonomy of the local bank organisations. In accordance with Dutch regulations in the field of credit and financial services Rabobank Nederland oversees that the local banks maintain a required level of prudency and professionalism while selling financial products. This has grown to be especially important in view of recent developments and international standards such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Basel II and IFRS. This leads to an interesting and rather unusual phenomenon within international business: the mother companies and the much larger daughter are essentially forced to coexist together in order to function properly. This has led to a very ambivalent relationship between the two over the years.

At the time of the merger there were five management instruments within Rabobank Nederland:

1. Algemene Vergadering - general assembly. The boards of all local banks within the cooperation were represented here.
2. De Centrale Kringvergadering - advisoryboard manned by representatives of clusters of local banks.
3. De Hoofddirectie - general management. Theoretically they were an autonomous management organ, but in practice, they had to pay 'serious consideration' to what the 4th organ; Raad van Beheer; thought about the course of action for the organisation.
4. Raad van Beheer - management council. An independent advisory council whose chairman also attended the meetings of De Hoofddirectie.
5. Raad van Toezicht - supervisory board.

In 2002 this rather cumbersome structure was simplified. The Raad van Beheer was disbanded. De Hoofddirectie received an integral authority over the banking business. It was also renamed to Raad van Bestuur or board of directors. They have an added task compared to a traditional board i.e. they are expected to look out for the specific interests of the members (local banks and their certificate holders). The Raad van Toezicht was renamed to county commission and now held an independent supervisory role. The chairman of this board also presides over the Centrale Kringvergadering. The latter is the most distinguishing organ as compared to other financial institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.