The rationale and impact of Banques Populaires transformation from a cooperative to a commercial bank

II.7.6 UTRECHT AND EINDHOVEN

Today the two most important locations of Rabobank in Netherland are Utrecht and Eindhoven. The prominence of these locations dates back to the existence of two central cooperative banks, both founded in 1898, that existed alongside each other for three-quarters of a century. Six cooperative banks in the northern part of the Netherlands joined forces to found the Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Bank in Utrecht. Twenty-two cooperative banks in the south together founded the Coöperatieve Centrale Boerenleenbank in Eindhoven. The two banks established their different domains in part along geographic lines. However, they were also, at the end of the 19th century, divided by political and religious differences. In spite of their very similar structure and provenance, the Northern and Southern cooperative organisations followed separate paths. The bank in Eindhoven was run as a Catholic institution, whereas the bank in Utrecht, although formally non-denominational, in reality was Protestant. Additionally, the management in Eindhoven was more stringent and centralized than in Utrecht, where the tendency was to emphasize local autonomy( www.rabobank.com)..

II.7.7 THE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE OF RABOBANK NEDERLAND

Reflecting the management structure of the Coöperatieve Centrale Boerenleenbank (one of the two central banks that merged) at the time of the merger in 1972, Rabobank Nederland has five governing bodies: the general meeting at which the boards of all the local banks were represented, the Central Delegates Assembly, the Executive Board, the Board of Directors,and the Supervisory Board. In 2002 this fairly complex management system of Rabobank Nederland was simplified somewhat. The influence of members - the control of the local banks - was strengthened by giving the Central Delegates Assembly greater authorities. The Board of Directors was abolished. The executive management was made responsible for the integral managing and is now called the Executive Board. So this board now not only has the task of managing the banking business, but is also responsible for serving the interests of the local member banks. The independent, supervisory role of the Supervisory Board was strengthened. The chairman of this board now leads the Central Delegates Assembly. The Central Delegates Assembly is particularly what makes the management structure of Rabobank Nederland distinctive from other large Dutch banks ( www.rabobank.com).

II.7.8 INTERNATIONALISATION OF RABOBANK

Although the name Rabobank International only dates back to 1996, the Rabobank Group's international activities actually began much earlier. During the course of the 1970s Rabobank's business customers began to demand more and better services abroad. In response to those demands Rabobank sought to ensure that it could serve its customers abroad, slowly building the network that has now become Rabobank International:

- Opening branch offices in Europe, North America, Asia and South America, primarily to serve larger business customers

- Entering into strategic alliances with allied European partners. The most well-known examples of such alliances are ADCA in Germany and PIBA in Australia. In 2002 the Rabobank Group acquired the ACC Bank in Ireland and the Valley Independence Bank in the United States. These acquisitions fit in with the Group's modern strategy of exporting expertise in the field of consumer banking and the agricultural sector to promising markets abroad. Each branch office of Rabobank International in the key trading countries within Europe now has a Dutch Desk to serve Dutch SME customers. ( www.rabobank.com)