OREANDA-NEWS. The member boards of all 106 local Rabobanks in the Netherlands gave their unanimous support for the changes to the governance structure of the Rabobank. The new structure will come into effect from 1 January 2016 if the General Meeting of Rabobank Nederland approve the merger at meetings to be held on 9 December.
 

Chairman of the Executive Board Wiebe Draijer: "Today is a historic day for Rabobank. This result demonstrates the unanimous support of our members for the new governance of the Rabobank. We are taking a major step on the road to achieving our aim of becoming the customer-oriented bank at the heart of society. By actively involving our members in our plans in the last year we reached agreement together on the proposal which has today been officially endorsed by our member base. The core of our cooperative organisation is and always will be that it’s the members who keep the bank on course, not just at their local level but across the bank as a whole.”

The local Rabobanks are the lifeblood of the cooperative and always will be.  Members now have a greater say and more influence than before. Each local Rabobank will be given direct representation on behalf of its members in the highest organ of the cooperative, the General Members’ Council which decides, amongst other things, on the strategy of the entire bank.
The 106 local banks and Rabobank Nederland will work together from one cooperative holding one banking licence and releasing one set of financial statements. By moving to a new structure Rabobank is acting in anticipation of legislative and regulatory change and gearing up to respond more effectively and efficiently to future developments.