Rabobank in business

The main objective of Rabo Financial Institutions Development (Rabo Development) is to create strategic alliances with and to provide capital to prominent banks in developing countries. Through strategic collaboration with banks which also serve the rural areas, we aim to help transform them into modern financial services providers. Successfully doing so contributes to an improved economic climate and creates new financial opportunities for many people.

Such collaborations also enable Rabobank to use its knowledge and experience in the agricultural sector to encourage and support the export of agriproducts.

Investments by Rabo Development

Since 2005, Rabo Financial Institutions Development has focused on acquiring partner banks. A highlight of 2005 was our investment in the Tanzanian National Microfinance Bank (NMB), in which we acquired a 35% interest (with 14% being held by other partners in the consortium). Following the acquisition, Rabo Financial Institutions Development began executing a business plan aimed at developing the bank's credit culture, creating new products, and providing extensive attention to issues of risk management and corporate governance. 

In December 2006 Rabobank acquired 49%t of the shares in the Zambia National Commercial Bank PLC (Zanaco). Rabobank furthermore invests in an extensive long-term program that will enable Zanaco to develop into a leading financial services provider in Zambia, consistent with the Zambian government’s stated privatisation objectives.

In June 2006, Rabobank and IFC (International Finance Corporation) agreed to aquire, respectively 10% + 5% shares in the URCB of Hangzhou. This alliance marked the first foreign equity participation in a Chinese rural cooperative bank and sets a valuable precedent for the proces of restructuring and reforming China's rural credit cooperatives. 

Rabo Financial Institutions Development is also actively investing and supporting, or planning to invest in and support similar banks in countries such as China, Mozambique, Paraguay and Peru.

Working in developing countries
Do you want to contribute and help build well-organised financial services in developing countries? Find out how to apply below.

What kind of consultants are we looking for?
The Rabobank Development Program is first and foremost ‘people work’. That is why we are looking for professionals who are interested in taking on the challenge of working at a financial institution in a developing country for a specified period of time. 

Rabo Development obviously prefers to deploy Rabobank employees as consultants. After all, Rabobank employees have extensive banking experience and are better able than anyone to convey the Rabobank culture. However, external consultants with the appropriate experience are also invited to apply.

Rabo Development makes a distinction between long-term and short-term deployments.

Long-term deployments are missions that take one to three years. 
For these deployments we are primarily seeking extremely experienced bankers who bring broad management experience (at least ten years). In the case of projects involving a participating interest in a financial institution, you will hold a management position and serve as a discussion partner for the local management. You will also be responsible for co-ordinating the activities of the consultants who are on short-term deployments. For long-term deployment, we envisage a candidate with experience of being a bank director or upper level manager. Having both local and centralised general banking and management experience will be considered a plus. Willingness to live in another country for an extended period is a must

Short-term deployments are missions for a few weeks or, at the most, several months.
You are eligible for a short-term deployment if you have expertise in one or more divisions of the banking field (at least five years). Examples include product development, ICT/MIS, distribution policy, credit lending, risk management, internal audit, payments, human resources, business processes, etc.

Consultants should also have the following general characteristics (for both long and short-term deployments):

- Excellent written and spoken command of the English language
- Academic intellectual and working level
- Team player
- Enterprising and flexible attitude
- Ability to think ‘out of the box’
- A ‘hands-on’ attitude and ability to put plans into practice
- Solution-orientation, result-focus and pragmatic approach
- Enjoy sharing knowledge and experiences
- Energetic and inspiring
- Open to other cultures          

How to apply
You can apply to the Rabobank Development Program consultant database by filling in your profile (personal details, education, experience, etc.) via the link below. Before doing so please take notice of the following instructions: Admission to the Rabobank Development Program Consultant Database takes place in two steps:

1) Preliminary registration
Here you will be asked to summarise your knowledge and experience, the last position held and some personal details. This will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

2) Full registration  
Based on this preliminary registration, you will either be invited by email to complete a full registration in order to add your profile to our consultant database or you will be informed that your profile does not currently match our requirements.  Full registration will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

When registering your details within the Consultant Database, you will be entering your details in free-field textboxes. It is very important that you pay careful attention to entering the correct information in a complete and accurate manner as our recruiters carry out field-search selections within the database in order to export profiles into the different CV formats that are officially required by organisations such as The Worldbank and the EU.

If you would like to register, please click here.