Rabobank in business

In line with the cooperative structure of Rabobank with 1.5 million members there is an ongoing strategic stakeholder dialogue with our members and clients on the core processes of our business. They have a voice and a say in the direction in which the bank and its products develop both in the short and the long term.

The client interest groups are an essential sounding board for continually improving our products and services and adapting them to the needs and wishes emerging in society. In addition to the Dutch Consumers’ Association, we have regular consultations with interest groups for special client groups, such as immigrants, older people and disabled people. This has led to special products and services including the Good Causes Account, talking reloader terminals for the chipknip electronic purse and an internet package for people with impaired eyesight.

The NGOs are the most important stakeholder in terms of social issues. Their purpose is to identify (alleged) misconduct in respect of people, the environment or nature by businesses and governments around the world. They perform an important task, and one which is also in the interests of businesses and governments themselves. The constructive dialogue that Rabobank has conducted over the past few years with a number of NGOs has led to the integration of a CSR approach in our financial services, an increase in transparency and a modification of some of our communications.

We have regular consultations with our suppliers on the desired increase in sustainability of our purchasing. We present our wishes to them and in response they state ways in which they feel they can contribute to our CSR approach. Along with product specifications, suppliers’ approach to CSR is a major selection criterion for us. Our dialogue with our suppliers focuses on long-term cooperation. This translates into long-term (master) contracts, for instance for purchasing green energy and (FSC) paper. 

Rating agencies have a major part to play in identifying issues on which we can improve our CSR performance. Analysing the rating results in themselves is not enough to achieve this, however, and we accordingly welcome consultation with the various rating agencies. Not only to understand exactly where there is room for us to improve, but also to consider together with them where there is room to optimise the rating process to ensure that it does as much justice as possible to the efforts of businesses in this field. The rating agencies also present their results to the management in several meetings.

We include our CSR performance in presentations (both group and individual presentations) to our investors. We draw special attention to CSR in roadshows for institutional investors. We use the positive external ratings of our sustainability efforts to support our triple P status, next to our triple A status. Our sustainability rating is likewise explicitly spotlighted in our information package and our film for Investor Relations. 

The Dutch government and the Rabobank Group consult very frequently on a range of social and economic issues. In a number of cases this leads to joint cooperation. For instance, the Rabobank Group consulted with various government representatives and opposition parties on support for developing countries, addressing the climate challenge, increasing sustainability of agriculture and the social issues in cities and the rural areas. 

Until recently there was insufficient reliable information on how our employees experience CSR in their daily work and on their wishes in this area. To address this we held a broad-based quantitative survey at the end of 2005 to assess to what extent employees were familiar with Rabobank’s CSR policy. The survey was conducted by telephone with 304 local Rabobanks and Rabobank Nederland employees. The main conclusions of the survey were: 

• The basic attitude towards CSR is positive but employees are, as yet, insufficiently able to translate this into practical conduct.
• There is a substantial need for knowledge and communication on all aspects of CSR in general and on the importance of the CSR policy of Rabobank in particular. 

The survey shows that spotlighting effects and successful examples is inspiring for employees and makes CSR tangible for them. We worked hard on this in 2006, and will continue to give priority to this in the coming years.