Rabobank closed the first half of 2017 with a profit of €1,5 billion. That is an increase of no less than 52%. The increase is partly due to the growing economy in the Netherlands. This is evident from the bank's half-year report.
Low interest rates on savings and dynamics in the housing market have led to an increase in prepayments of mortgage loans. In addition, the services and construction sectors in particular contributed to Rabobank's growth.
Rabobank remains the largest in agriculture
Financing to the food & agri sector amounted to more than €6 billion in the first 2017 months of 27. That is 10% of all loans issued by Rabobank. The report also shows that Rabobank has a stable market share in the Dutch food & agri sector, namely 85%. This means that Rabobank remains the largest bank in the agricultural sector.
Customer satisfaction remains high
This is also apparent from the fact that Rabobank is highly valued by agricultural customers. This is mainly because the bank invests in the agricultural sector. For example, Rabobank recently announced that it will support Dutch poultry farmers who have been affected by fipronil.
"We want to draw more attention to the problems in these sectors. This includes the dairy sector, the barn fires in pig farming and, of course, the problems in the poultry sector. The scandal in the poultry sector has also no effects on us, but it does bring a lot of uncertainty to companies. That is exactly what we want to solve," said Wiebe Draijer, chairman of the board at Rabobank.
Pig farming is also important at Rabobank. Draijer: "We want an investigation into the cause of the barn fires. We naturally want to co-finance that investigation."
Future vision
Draijer still sees a number of major challenges for the future, such as the digitization of payment systems. The speed of change demands a lot from our attention. In addition, Rabobank wants to further strengthen the circular economy.
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
