History
Our past made us what we are today: the world’s largest food and agribusiness bank.
A pioneering vision
It all began over a century ago, in the middle of the 1800s when Friedrich Raiffeisen came up with a system in which farmers’ own savings would be used to provide financial support through credit.
The cooperative philosophy is simples: a group of people are co-owners, partners, and directors and so have mutual responsibility. This cooperative bank is financed through attracting savings from the local community. The farmers who are members of the bank can lend money at market interest rates. The profits are added to the bank’s reserves.
In the late 19th century this form of collective self-help took off in the Netherlands. Dutch farmers wanted to modernize, but very often had problems getting credit, so rural credit cooperatives were opened around the entire country.
Where did the name Rabobank come from?
In 1898, the first two regional central banks were opened: the Cooperative Association of Raiffeisen Banks, and Cooperative Central Boerenleenbank. In 1972 they merged and created a central cooperative - Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank, or RABOBANK. The Ra from Raiffeisen and Bo from Boerenleenbank were also merged into Rabobank.
Global presence
The international expansion of Dutch companies in the 1970s and 1980s also attracted Rabobank to go beyond the country’s borders. In 1981 Rabobank opened its first overseas branch, in New York. This was the first step. Since then Rabobank has opened more branches in Europe, North America, Asia, and South America, and it has struck strategic alliances with European partners, allowing Rabobank to take its experience in consumer banking and the agricultural sector to promising markets abroad. We are currently in 38 countries on every continent.
Rabobank Frankfurt
The German office, located in Frankfurt am Main, was opened in 1984. In 2002, Rabobank launched the direct bank RaboDirect as part of the International Direct Banking (IDB), to tap into the new opportunities offered by the Internet offers for savings and banking services.
Until 2021 RaboDirect provided more than a quarter of a million private customers with selected savings products each year. Due to the persistently negative market development, Rabobank discontinued its retail banking business in Germany in 2021 and closed RaboDirect on 31 December 2021.
Regardless of the closure of RaboDirect, rabobank still sees growth potential in its corporate banking business in Germany and will continue to offer its products and financing with a focus on the food and agricultural sectors.