| Website | http://www.rabobank.nl |
| Headquarters |
Croeselaan 18
3521 CB Utrecht
Netherlands
|
| CEO/chair |
Stefaan Decraene Chairman of the executive board |
| Supervisor | |
| Ownership |
Rabobank has a cooperative structure, the bank is owned by members. |
Rabobank Group is a full-range financial services provider based in the Netherlands, dating back to 1898 when two cooperative banks were formed in Utrecht and Eindhoven. They merged in 1972 to become the Rabobank. The bank is founded on cooperative principles and as such owned by its members. The bank offers financial services to consumers, private clients and business but its origin as a rural cooperative bank still reflects today in the bank being a global leader in food and agri financing and in sustainability-oriented banking.
Rabobank's most important sustainability commitments can be found at the website sections listed below.
Rabobank is linked to a number of companies and projects that BankTrack considers controversial (so called Dodgy Deals), e.g. as a current or past financier or through an expression of interest. The profiles below provide more details on the nature of Rabobank's link to these deals.
The 2022 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that Rabobank provided US$ 10.47 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021. Find further details on Rabobank's fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in the Coal Policy Tracker and Oil and Gas Policy Tool. Find further details on their assessment of Rabobank's fossil fuel policy below.
BankTrack assessed Rabobank in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 8 points out of 14 and was ranked as a front runner. In addition, Rabobank scored 0 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.
Rabobank’s policies for forest-risk sectors (beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber and timber) have been assessed by the Forests & Finance coalition, achieving an overall score of 7.4 out of 10 and ranking it as a leader. Rabobank achieved a score of 7.4 out of 10 specifically for its policies related to the beef sector and 7.6 out of 10 for its policies related to the palm oil sector. In addition, BankTrack and the Environmental Paper Network have assessed Rabobank’s policies related to the pulp and paper sector.
Between 2016 and 2022, Rabobank provided USD 11,115 million in credit to companies operating in these forest-risk sectors. For more information, see the links below.
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its policies. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its beef policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
A bank can obtain a total of 10 points for the quality of its palm oil policy. The total score is based on their scores per sector, weighted against their financing and investment for each sector. For further details on this see here. Based on their overall score, banks are then classified as Laggards, Followers, Front runners or Leaders, as follows:
Rabobank is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker
BankTrack is keeping track of the public response of Rabobank to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Rabobank has publicly condemned the war. Rabobank is considered by Leave-Russia.org to be "suspending" its operations in Russia. We consider its exposure to Russia as limited. Rabobank supports the Russian fossil fuel industry through loans and underwriting. For further details, see the table linked below.
Rabobank states that individuals and communities who may be adversely affected by its finance can raise a complaint to the bank via its Feedback or Complaints web page.
Stakeholders may also raise complaints via the OECD National Contact Points (see OECD Watch guidance). Advice on specific cases may also be requested from the NVB's Advisory Panel on Responsible Banking.
This page evaluates Rabobank's responses to instances of alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, raised by civil society organisations. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but covers selected impacts raised by BankTrack and other civil society partners since 2016. For the full scoring methodology, see here. For more information about BankTrack's evaluation of bank responses to human rights impacts, see the 2021 report "Actions speak louder: assessing bank responses to human rights violations".
No information available on whether the bank engaged with its client or took appropriate action.
Following the bank's response: The bank stated that engagements with clients are publicly reported in an anonymised format in its annual reports. This reporting does not provide details on whether or how the bank has engaged with the company in this specific instance nor does it state whether the bank has required to company to take specific actions or taken appropriate action itself. Therefore, the score remains unchanged.
