Raiffeisen has announced that it aims to overhaul its governance with the creation of a Raiffeisen Bank Cooperative, which will enable individual clients to participate actively in the management of the Group.

The Bank will have a Cooperative consultative body composed of about 20 members representing a wide professional and geographical diversity within Luxembourg. These members will be invited to meet and interact with the Board of Directors on a regular basis. The Cooperative will give impetus to the Council and will share with it any important feedback from local customers. Four Cooperative members will be elected to the Board of Directors by some 34,000 members of the Group, in a democratic vote.

The proposed transaction makes it possible to involve all members in a simple and transparent manner in the development of the Raiffeisen Luxembourg Group. It is thanks to its cooperative model that Raiffeisen can take this step: the cooperative philosophy basically foresees a strong involvement of its members, within the framework of a democratic governance to which they are invited to associate. Although they determine the group's strategy and evolution, members do not have any economic rights to the assets.

This visionary construction, conceived 200 years ago, assures a healthy and selfless management, with the only objective being the durability of the activities. In fact, a cooperative bank is not bound by short-term profitability objectives: it is not subject to shareholder pressure in terms of dividends, but only uses its profits to satisfy regulatory ratios and finance its long-term growth.

The project calls for the Bank to merge with its thirteen Regional Banks and reduce the size of its board, in line with current trends in the European banking sector. In addition to the representatives of the natural persons who will become the dominant force on the Board of Directors, there will also be representatives of the cooperatives and POST.

The project will not affect either the employment or the commercial network of the group. The Group will emerge stronger from this project, with smoother processes, better customer service, governance to meet the highest demands and the involvement of its members in line with the founders' concepts.