FinTech Magazine - Money20/20 Special FinTech Magazine - Money20/20 Special | Page 89

RABOBANK third of the emissions of the global agrifood system comes from energy-related activities .”
One thing we can do is reduce the amount of water needed for growing crops , and transitioning to renewable energy wherever possible within the food value chain . But the FAO also highlights the source of energy for cooking as a problem : in 2019 , a third of the global population relied on wood , charcoal or agricultural residues for their household cooking needs – a demand that , in some cases , outstripped the abundance of natural supply .
Explaining how Rabobank empowers the energy transition ,
BART LEURS
TITLE : CHIEF INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
INDUSTRY : BANKING LOCATION : NETHERLANDS
Bart Leurs , Rabobank ’ s current Chief Innovation and Technology Officer ( CITO ), joined Rabobank in 2016 , first serving as Head of FinTech & Innovation before four years as Chief Digital Transformation Officer . As CITO , Bart is leading the change to continuously improve the effectiveness of the bank ' s ' Tech engine ' and is driving the organisation to innovate and make use of the possibilities of Tech & Data . He has held his current role since September 2021 . Bart previously worked at ING , leading various business departments . He has over 20 years of experience conceiving and delivering new and innovative digital services at banks .
Leurs says : “ We are one of the biggest financiers of wind farms around the world , but we also have the obligation of making sure that we bring clients with us in making this huge transition to a more electrified world . In energy security , our knowledge is younger than it is in agri-food , but we can still have a major impact and we know we already have a strong position .
“ That ’ s why we have chosen those two – agri-food and energy – as the main transitions to bank on for the future . We know that , if we do a good job with our clients in those two areas , we will also do a good job for the planet .”
How is Rabobank fostering a culture of innovation ? Leurs joined the business in October 2016 , and since then , he knows that there have been improvements . Even from the beginning , Rabobank has always been an innovative organisation : it was the first bank to offer internet banking and ATM withdrawals to its clients in the Netherlands ; and it pioneered a payments system called iDEAL , which has become instrumental to transactions , taking less than a decade after launch to capture 50 % of online payments made in the country . But it hasn ’ t always got everything right .
“ We have made lots of mistakes and had quite a lot of setbacks ,” Leurs freely admits , “ but we have tried to learn from every single one of them .
“ When I joined Rabobank , it already had a strong history of innovations . But my perception coming into the bank was that innovation was very disorganised . We were doing lots of different things in different places , and it was very tech-driven . Innovation was part of our IT department , and there was no structured way of bringing innovation to fruition . In that respect , we moved from being an organisation of inventors – people who create technical solutions without much coordination – to being an organisation that has a mature innovation governance with seasoned innovation professionals .
Leurs says that , in those days , innovation within Rabobank lacked direction . “ We collaborated with tech startups and tried a bunch of different things just to generate power and enthusiasm . However , we