(Bloomberg) -- Rabobank Group plans to reorganize its division responsible for lending to the food and agriculture industry, the second-largest business segment of the Dutch cooperative bank.
The changes are set to take effect by beginning of next year, Els Kamphof, Rabobank’s group director for the wholesale and rural division said in an interview. She ruled out job cuts as a result of the move.
Managers are pushing for a unified way of working across the global lending offering which includes project finance and trade and commodity finance. The wholesale and rural unit’s Asia operations will also be combined with the Europe and Africa region.
As the market is getting more competitive, clients “expect swift service and they expect a digital offering as well,” Kamphof said in the interview on Tuesday. That makes it necessary to be “organized in a more simple way,” she said.
This is the latest move under Chief Executive Officer Stefaan Decraene who took over helm of the Utrecht-headquartered bank in 2023. Rabobank is also in the process of reorganizing its Dutch retail business. It has already combined activities for its private and business clients under a single unit in the Netherlands this year.
Rabobank is among the world’s biggest lenders to the food and agriculture industries. Its wholesale and rural division reported a 61% increase in net profit to €463 million ($499 million) in the first half of the year.
Rabobank wants to grow in Asia but the competition has kept the business “relatively small,” Kamphof said. “That’s why, from an operating model perspective, we will bring the region together with Europe and Africa,” she said.
--With assistance from Vanessa Dezem.
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