for the cycling team sponsored by this company see rabobank cycling team . for the arena in bakersfield california see rabobank arena . rabobank groep nv type naamloze vennootschap industry financial services predecessors raiffeisen bank boerenleenbank founded 1972 1972 headquarters rabotoren utrecht netherlands coordinates 52 5 11 n 5 6 34 e 52.08639 n 5.10944 e 52.08639 ; 5.10944 number of locations 520 netherlands 428 elsewhere 2015 area served worldwide key people wiebe draijer chairman of the board bas brouwers cfo products banking insurance leasing real estate revenue 12.857 billion 2014 13.030 billion 2013 1 operating income 4.802 billion 2014 3.270 billion 2013 1 profit 1.842 billion 2014 2.007 billion 2013 1 total assets 681.086 billion 2014 669.095 billion 2013 1 total equity 38.871 billion 2014 38.534 billion 2013 1 number of employees 48 254 fte 2014 56 870 fte 2013 1 slogan a bank with ideas website www.rabobank.com utrecht head office rabobank rabobank dutch pronunciation ra bo b k ; full name co peratieve rabobank u.a. is a dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in utrecht netherlands . it is a global leader in food and agri financing and sustainability oriented banking . the group comprises 129 independent local dutch rabobanks 2013 a central organization rabobank nederland and a large number of specialized international offices and subsidiaries . food and agribusiness is the prime international focus of the rabobank group . 2 rabobank is the second largest bank in the netherlands in terms of total assets . 3 a 2013 scandal resulted in a 1 billion fine for unscrupulous trading practices including the manipulation of libor currency rates worldwide . chief executive piet moerland resigned immediately as a result . 4 in terms of tier 1 capital the organisation is among the top 30 largest financial institutions in the world . as of december 2014 total assets amount to 681 billion with a net profit of 1.8 billion . global finance ranks rabobank 25th in its survey of the world s safest banks . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 creation of farmers banks 1.2 early cooperation 1.3 merger 1.4 overseas expansion 1.5 direct banking 1.6 acquisitions 1.7 development 1.8 job cuts 2 organisation structure 3 market position 4 rabodirect 4.1 ireland 4.2 new zealand 4.3 australia 4.4 germany 4.5 poland 5 naming rights 6 references 7 external links history edit rooted in agriculture rabobank is set up as a federation of local credit unions which offer services to the local markets . the central organisation is a subsidiary of local branches not the parent as is the case with most banks . creation of farmers banks edit the bank is rooted in the ideas of friedrich wilhelm raiffeisen the founder of the cooperative movement of credit unions who in 1864 created the first farmers bank in germany . being a countryside mayor he was confronted with the abject poverty of the farmers and their families . he tried to alleviate this need through charitable aid but realised that self reliance had more potential in the long run and thus converted his charitable foundation into a farmers bank in 1864 . in doing so he created the darlehnskassen verein which collected the savings of countryside dwellers and provided enterprising farmers with loans . this model found a lot of interest in the netherlands at the end of the 19th century . one of the first of raiffeisen s followers was father gerlacus van den elsen who stood at the basis of a number of local farmers banks in the south of the netherlands . the model caught on being championed by the clergy and the countryside elites . the mission of the farmers lending banks was an idealistic one but they always operated using strict business principles . controversially a founding principle of rabobank s cooperative style was to cooperate in the interests of warding off the shylock . the cooperative bank model assured a tight bond between invested capital and the community . early cooperation edit the bank s traditional headquarters are utrecht and eindhoven . in 1898 two cooperative bank conglomerates were formed co peratieve centrale raiffeisen bank in utrecht co peratieve centrale boerenleenbank in eindhoven the first was formed as a cooperation of 6 local banks and the latter as a cooperation of 22 local banks . these two existed side by side for three quarters of a century despite their obvious similarities . the reasons for this owed in part to legal disagreements . the most important difference however was cultural . the eindhoven based boerenleenbank had a decidedly catholic signature while the raiffeisen bank had a protestant background . in the past the netherlands underwent a process of pillarisation or verzuiling which in practice meant that members of different religious congregations and political movements essentially lived side by side each other without contact between the two . the religious backgrounds found their way to the organisational structure as well ; the eindhoven organisation stressed a highly centralised structure while the utrecht organisation promoted local autonomy . merger edit by 1940 the two organisations cooperated with each other albeit on a limited scale . three major developments caused a further tightening of the bonds between the two increasing number of offices leading to increased local competition a gradual fading of the confessional differences between the two an increasing demand for capital in the dutch industry which in turn led to higher concentration in the banking business in 1972 the two organisation merged . the name rabobank was created from raiffeisen boerenleenbank . the organisation chose amsterdam to be its statutory headquarter due to the historical neutrality in relation to the founding organisations . as of 1980 the central organisation is referred to as rabobank nederland . overseas expansion edit in 1980 rabobank expanded its international activities as part of its mission to finance global agriculture . in 1990 it established a joint venture bank in indonesia partnering with a local bank bank duta to form rabobankduta . bank duta subsequently collapsed in the 1998 asian financial crisis and rabobank bought duta s share to operate solely as pt bank rabobank international indonesia . in 1994 it purchased primary industry bank of australia piba which had operations in australia and new zealand and renamed it rabobank australia limited in 2003 . 6 in 1997 it purchased new zealand based wrightson farmers finance limited and renamed it rabobank new zealand in 1999 . rabobank became a significant lender to the rural sector in the new zealand with this purchase and used this as a base to expand its lending business further . rabo purchased australian company lend lease agro business in 2003 . in 2008 it expanded it s operations in indonesia by buying two retail banks bank haga and bank hagakita . direct banking edit in 2002 it launched a new internet only savings bank called rabobank.be . a second online savings banks was launched in 2005 in ireland under the name of rabodirect and then as raboplus in new zealand and two years later in australia . after a small hiatus new online banks were opened in poland 2011 and germany 2012 . the advertising campaigns used to promote the savings business in ireland and new zealand raised the profile of rabobank generally in those countries resulting in not only an increase in savings business but also its lending businesses . in 2010 rabobank decided to use the same brand name in australia and new zealand for the savings bank and replaced raboplus with rabodirect in these countries . acquisitions edit rabobank completed the acquisition of mid state bank & trust on may 1 2007 which allows rabo to expand its services to the central coast region of california united states . in 2010 it also acquired pacific state bank expanding into the central valley of california . development edit right from the start the cooperative banks prospered . they managed to perform the key tasks of a banking organisation i.e. bringing excess capital and capital shortages together . these moneylenders stood close to the farmers and were better in judging the creditworthiness of individual farmers than the city banks . this allowed the banks to offer lower interest rates . the local banks were self governed by members of the cooperation . they adhered to the principle of non remunerated management and elected the board and the commissioners from among themselves . only the cashier received a small salary . this has of course changed by now but even as recently as in late 1950s the local bank office was nothing more than the cashier s living room he generally performed his administrative duties besides another regular job . much later in the 1960s the most local banks moved into new and modern offices that reflected their new found professionalism . the position cashier was replaced by a local bank director . since 1998 the local bank director is an appointed professional banker and he presides over a board of directors which is chosen from among the members . local presence and local autonomy were always important but this hasn t stopped a wave of concentration of the local banks . the major rationale behind this was the need to attain economies of scale in the fields of payments transaction processing staff and of course capital . increasing customer demand for standardized and widely available products also played a significant part in this development . currently the motto is as large as is necessary as small as possible . this of course applies to the size of the local bank offices . traditionally the bank served mostly farmers and small businesses . since the introduction of consumer salary accounts in the 1960s the number of retail clients grew exponentially . this has led to rabobank being a prominent player in the field of savings accounts checking accounts and mortgages in the netherlands . in june 2012 rating agency moody s downgraded rabobank s to aa2 previously aaa with a negative outlook . due to a new rating methodology in november 2011 by rating agency standard & poor s the credit status was downgraded two steps from aaa to aa . in november 2014 s & p lowered the rating from aa to a with a negative outlook . rating agency fitch rates the credit status of the bank aa with a negative outlook . as per the new strategy rabobank is planning to exit some markets . in september 2014 rabobank sold bank bgz to bnp paribas for 1.39 billion . 7 job cuts edit in december 2015 rabobank announced to cut 9 000 jobs by 2018 3 000 jobs by the end of 2016 and it almost a fifth of current workforce . the policy is to comply with tougher basel iv rulebook . 8 organisation structure edit branch of rabobank in amsterdam the rabobank group consists of a network of local banks rabobank nederland and several daughter organisations . formally the local rabobanks are the mother organisation of rabobank nederland their central organisation . the local banks are facilitated by rabobank nederland to serve their customers and not the other way around as is often the case with traditional banking organisations . employees of the group do not routinely speak of a headquarters but prefer to speak of rabobank nederland which is their daughter organisation . the central organisation does occasionally overrule the autonomy of the local bank organisations . in accordance with dutch regulations in the field of credit and financial services rabobank nederland oversees that the local banks maintain a required level of prudence and professionalism while selling financial products . this has grown to be especially important in view of recent developments and international standards such as sarbanes oxley act basel ii and ifrs . this leads to an interesting and rather unusual phenomenon within international business the mother companies and the much larger daughter are essentially forced