Rabobank: Accounting inconsistencies

Different lists of subsidiaries betray poor control of core information.

The Site

Rabobank, a Netherlands-based financial services group, gives different accounts of its subsidiaries to an international audience and the one in its home country.

On its international site Subsidiaries is a page within the About us section that lists 11 companies and brands. Clicking on a name expands its entry to give a brief description within the page. On the Dutch-language Rabobank Groep site a list of 13 names is presented for similar click-and-display. This selection has four names not included in the international list (Bizner Eureko, Orbay and Rabo Bouwfunds), while the international list has two, FGH Bank and Rabo Vastgoed, exclusive to itself; these are part of the Rabo Bouwfunds grouping, according to the Dutch information. Both sites link to complementary language versions of the same organogram (organisation chart), from which some names are missing (for example, ACC Bank, Bizner, Orbay).

The Takeaway

Rabobank deserves to be applauded for producing what appears to be a simple, easy-to-use and informative introductory guide to its subsidiaries. Plenty of large organisations could profitably learn from it. Not so praiseworthy is the inconsistency between the picture it presents to its different audiences and, in both cases, between the listed information and the common organogram.

How is it that you get a different impression depending on who you are and which part of the bank is speaking to you? Almost certainly the answer lies in the management structure of Rabobank’s web estate. The particulars of this example point to there being no team or directorate responsible for overall coordination, and no common platform for the group’s websites. It may be that the Rabobank Groep site has yet to migrate to the more modern-looking template used by the international site (and the main Dutch consumer site) but that will not necessarily resolve the issue of consistency of content. On something as basic as what makes up the group there really should be an agreed version that everyone is obliged to adhere to.

First published on 12 July, 2007