Rabobank Group

29-6-2011 | Press Releases

Rabobank is expanding its German network comprising offices in Dusseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt to include Hamburg with the opening today of the Hamburg International Desk to serve Dutch international business clients in North Germany.

Hamburg was an obvious choice due to its status as Germany’s second largest city. Germany is also the Netherlands’ main trading partner, with 25% of all Dutch exports going to Germany. North Germany is furthermore the country’s fastest growing region economically. With its international port, Hamburg forms the economic centre of this flourishing region of Germany. So it is with good reason that companies such as Philips, Unilever, Shell and Vopak have located their German head offices in Hamburg.

Potential
The decision to achieve decentralised growth in Germany was well-considered.
Wim Koelewijn, Hamburg International Desk Manager: ‘Until late last year, Rabobank Germany and Austria provided centralised service from Dusseldorf. It was clearly successful because the business has grown every year. We now receive more and more requests from companies that are active in the north and south of Germany. Both regions still provide ample market potential. The addition of Hamburg enables us to be comfortably close to the local and regional networks. We will focus from our Hamburg office primarily on Dutch companies that operate in the trade, industry and services sectors.’

Largest international network
Hartmut Rosowski, Rabobank Germany International Desk Manager, adds: ‘Dutch clients are increasingly concentrating on international markets. This is reflected in the growing number of exporting companies and in the increase in the amount of foreign investment.’

Rosowski says the bank works with more and more large companies. Rabobank is, in fact, the Netherlands’ largest export financier and has the largest international network. ‘We have undergone a sharp development curve in this respect: until five years ago we served primarily small- and medium-sized enterprises. Growing numbers of large international companies now bank with us. The addition of Hamburg enables us to address this development.’