Libor scandal result of "Feelings of Invincibility": Rabobank CEO

The new CEO of Rabobank says that the underlying cause for the success with which the bank stood through the financial crisis, was the Libor scandal. According to Wiebe Draijer, the scandal created a feeling of invincibility that led to the control being equally tight everywhere. In the Libor affair Robobank traders were involved in the manipulation of international interest rates through a group of major banks world wide. After the affair former CEO Pieter Moerland stepped down and the employees of the bank started following a program focused on cultural change. Rabobank was the only major Dutch bank that did not need state aid during the credit crisis of 2008. The cooperative model of the bank proved safer than the model of listed rivals ABN Amro and ING. Draijer further said that Dutch banks had to apologize for the financial crisis, because the system that the bankers were responsible for had failed. "If the system that you stand for, that you take responsibility for, does not deliver where it is meant to, then you should do that too." According to commentators, Draijer stands before a major challenge to enter the bank into a new era. He wants to stay at the bank for at least two terms of four years.