Rabobank in business

7-3-2007 | Press Release

Bert Heemskerk, the Chairman of the Rabobank Executive Board, presented the first Rabobank credit card that contributes to improving the climate to Johan van de Gronden, Director of the World Wildlife Fund in the Netherlands, today during the presentation of the annual results. He also announced the introduction of the Rabo climate mortgage in April. This mortgage will compensate sustainable home investments through a discount on the mortgage interest rate. In this way Rabobank will encourage and reward its customers for acting sustainably. In closing, he announced that the bank is establishing a Clean Tech Research Desk. This desk will develop into a leading databank in the field of clean technology that will benefit both the Rabobank Group and its customers.

Bert Heemskerk commented during the presentation of the annual results of the Rabobank Group: ‘We have devoted a great deal of energy to developing products and services for both business and private customers. This has resulted in initiatives that will contribute to improving the climate and, in my view, will also be commercially successful. These new products and services include, for example, innovative financing methods for projects such as wind farms, the climate mortgage and the Rabobank credit card that makes a contribution to improving the environment. Customers will enjoy lower costs and the world will be better off with Rabobank!’ 

Climate Card
The credit card that contributes to improving the climate will be made available to 1.1 million cardholders of Rabobank in the months ahead. The climate card is the first outcome of a three-year partnership between the WWF and Rabobank. Rabobank will invest directly in ‘Gold Standard’* climate projects to cover the CO2 emissions that are linked to all credit card purchases.* The amount will be established using a calculation method developed by Rabobank and the WWF based on CO2 data from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. ‘Gold Standard’ is a standard for sustainable energy projects (solar, wind, water and biomass) that are primarily carried in developing countries. These projects contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in these countries because they ensure that the energy generated for the local communities is produced using clean technologies. An example of this is a biogas project in Honduras. The standard has been developed by leading organisations including the WWF in order to guarantee the quality of the projects. 

Climate Mortgage
More and more emphasis is being placed on sustainable new construction. Legislators are increasingly stimulating or requiring the adoption of sustainable measures. As a result property developers and consumers are increasingly faced with higher total building costs if they wish to invest in a sustainable manner. Extending a mortgage loan that includes an interest discount on sustainable (additional) investments enables the client to lend more at the same interest charges (in comparison to mortgages without a discount) in order to make these sustainable additional investments. 

Climate Market
Climate development is currently a hot topic. The Rabobank Group is convinced that the climate market provides both companies and individuals with a flexible and cost-efficient opportunity to participate in reducing CO2 emissions. The establishment of the Clean Tech Research Desk was preceded by Robeco’s launch of its second Clean Tech Fund in late 2006 and Robeco’s acquisition of a majority interest in the Swiss organisation SAM, which is the leading institute in the field of sustainable asset management in Europe. 
Rabobank has furthermore designed innovative forms of financing for activities such as a large wind farm off the coast of IJmuiden. The innovative character of this financing is demonstrated by the banks’ willingness to finance on a non-recourse basis during the construction phase, which is the highest risk phase of the project. This means that the banks take on co-responsibility for the risk of, for example, cost overruns and delays. With previous wind farms these risks were placed entirely with the investors. The amount lent credited by the Rabobank Group in Clean Tech financing and investments is around Eur. 5 billion. Through this participation, Rabobank becomes the World's most prominent bank in this sector.