Bert Heemskerk, chairman of Rabobank, tells Stephen Timewell about the Dutch bank’s programme of overseas expansion with a food and agricultural bias.

ING Group
Michel Tilmant, Chairman

Holland’s Rabobank has acquired a 36.5% stake in Sekerbank for $90m, as European banks continue to snap up shares in Turkish banks ahead of the country’s membership talks with the EU in October.

Growing funding needs led Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten to shift its focus from the retail to the institutional market. Edward Russell-Walling reports on this and the bank’s strategic benchmark programme.

Gerrit Zalm is the Dutch finance minister who still believes in the Stability and Growth Pact, he tells Karina Robinson.