Rabobank New Zealand Limited is a bank in New Zealand, a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Rabobank Nederland Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboba ...

. Rabobank focuses on rural banking, business banking and saving services. The New Zealand subsidiary was registered in 1994, and as of June 2022, has a market share of approximately 3%.

History

In 1998, Rabobank purchased the finance company Wrightson Farmers Finance Limited from

Wrightson Wrightson is a surname, and may refer to * Bernard Wrightson, American olympic medalist *Bernie Wrightson, American comic book artist *Earl Wrightson, American singer and actor * Harry Wrightson, English conservative politician *Jeff Wrightson, Engl ...

, a 160-year-old farming business, for . The sale destabilised Wrighton, but effectively established Rabobank as a rural lender in New Zealand. From November 2008 until December 2012, Rabobank was the principal sponsor of BikeNZ (since renamed to

Cycling New Zealand , abbrev = CNZ , logo = Cycling-NZ-Logo-Landscape.jpg , logosize = 200px , sport = Cycling , category = , image = , caption = , jurisdiction = New Zealand , membership = , founded = , aff = UCI , affdate = , region = OCC , regionyear = ...

Credit rating

Rabobank New Zealand historically had the highest-possible credit rating of AAA from

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is con ...

. However, after its parent company

had its rating downgraded and the

deposit guarantee Deposit insurance or deposit protection is a measure implemented in many countries to protect bank depositors, in full or in part, from losses caused by a bank's inability to pay its debts when due. Deposit insurance systems are one component of a ...

that the parent provided to the New Zealand subsidiary expired, S&P downgraded Rabobank's credit rating to A. Rabobank stated that deposits in Rabobank and RaboDirect made before the expiry of the parental guarantee in 2015 will still be guaranteed as long until they are withdrawn or transferred to another account. The credit rating of Rabobank New Zealand as of October 2015 is A from Standard & Poor's.

RaboDirect

RaboDirect a division of Rabobank New Zealand specialising in online savings and investments. It runs under the slogan "Your specialist savings bank". RaboDirect offers online savings accounts and access to investment funds. Cash deposits through RaboDirect are used for lending to the New Zealand rural sector through Rabobank New Zealand. RaboDirect, originally known as RaboPlus, was launched in February 2006. The bank originally advertised to customers as "Your significant other bank". By August 2006, six months after its launch, it had gathered over $500 million in deposits. In July 2010 the bank was rebranded as RaboDirect to bring it in line with other countries where Rabodirect operated such services.

Criticism

In March 2013 a Taranaki dairy farming family were forced off their Ōkato farm after Rabobank refused to negotiate a deal to refinance their mortgage with another bank and repossessed the farm. The family were initially given 21 days to come up with a resolution but 2 weeks earlier than this forced off the farm after the farm threatened to damage farm assets. The repossession resulted in bobby calves that were owned by the son of the family being killed by the receivers as well as some stock slaughtered. A journalist, Melanie Reid, from the

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

show ''3rd Degree'' was assaulted along with the cameraman when questioning the receivers on the receivership. There were also disputes over part of the farm being gifted to the family by local Maori on the condition the farm stay with the family. The farm was sold in May 2013.

References

{{NZ Banks Privately held companies of New Zealand Banks of New Zealand