A last salute to ABN AMRO Bank; unfortunate contributor to sustainability

3 januari 2008

The main event in the Dutch economy in 2007 was the end of ABN AMRO. This provided conclusive evidence for the thesis that being successful in sustainability and being able to sustain your company doesn’t go hand in hand. After a successful campaign the “consortium” of Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Santander was able to acquire ABN AMRO, which has now ended to exist as an independent company and is being split up. So much for the sustainability of ABN AMRO.
Yet, the bank has proven to be very successful in “sustainability”. At least this could be concluded after reviewing the long list of awards and recognition that the bank was able to collect for its sustainability performance. Some examples:
 The Global Bracken Award for CSR Bank of the year by the Financial Times;
 Most transparent company in The Netherlands according to the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs;
 Sustainable Leadership Award of CoreNet;
 The gold medal for international corporate achievement in sustainable development by The World Environmental Center;

 The Accountancy Award for the best Dutch Sustainability report;
 Best sustainable banks in emerging markets for both the Brazilian and the Indian franchises (FT);
 And high rankings in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.
What does this tell us? Was the sustainability agenda of the bank a fake?
No, it was not a fake. I believe that the bank was in the process of improving its sustainability performance step by step. And in this process it has proven to be able to realise important milestones and raising the bar in the industry (sustainability reporting, taking the initiative of the Equator Principles, on the product side for example the introduction of the Worldbank Eco-3Plus Note etc.). And as the years went by, the process of integrating sustainability in the business was increasingly a matter of the businesses. The head office function evolved from being the initiator and owner to broker and reporter. There continued to be real progress in sustainability, without the head office taking the lead in day to day operations. In that sense “sustainability” was as much a regular part of business as so many other processes (f.e. human resources, risk management, finance). And it is hard to claim that the banks agenda in all these processes turned out to be a fake now that the bank has been taken over.
At the same time it is fair to claim that sustainability was not a solid part of the agenda of the Managing Board (consider the fact that the CEO was never the responsible executive, while this responsibility has been re-allocated four times in approximately 5 years; De Swaan, Lires Rial, Kuiper, De Swaan). The Managing Board has never appreciated sustainability to the extent that they regarded it as a means of truly improving the relationships with stakeholders in order to improve the “fit” with society (see Better than Brundtland in attachement). To them sustainability was a different arena than the arena of the capital market. The latter was the one which made them tick; shareholders’ expectations, hedge funds agenda’s, ToR, pay out ratio. Great stuff, nicely absolute and clear! Contrary to that sustainability was merely a vague subject for philosophical interaction with a different audience. Board members appreciated sustainability initiatives throughout the organisation, but they would not go the extra mile themselves. It made them feel good, but it wasn’t that relevant (they believed).
I think this attitude mirrors the way lots of senior executives of many global enterprises take on sustainability, because indeed today the arenas of sustainability and the hard core capital market are still detached. However, I am convinced that there is an increasing overlap and executives better understand this. In fact they should take an active role to help shape the curve and reap the benefits for their organisations. To help facilitate this awareness all involved in sustainability should keep their heads in the sky and continue to inspire their executives and other colleagues. At the same time they should keep their feet firmly on the ground and realise there will be no sustainability success without economical and financial robustness.
To conclude; we salute ABN AMRO and appreciate the contribution it has made to sustainability in the financial sector. Moreover we wish the consortium members a lot of wisdom in taking over the baton from ABN AMRO. They have (accidentally?) acquired a wealth of sustainability experience and expertise which they should use to their advantage. Failing to do so will, at one point, hamper their position as successful market players in an increasingly dynamic and global economy. To paraphrase Darwin: it is all about the survival of the best fitting.

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