Volksbank also loses chairman of the supervisory board | Financial

In a press statement, Van Rutte calls it a natural moment to ‘hand over the baton’. He states that De Volksbank is ‘entering the next phase’: “With a new chairman of the board and a new top structure, it is logical that the Supervisory Board will also get a new chairman.”

However, Van Rutte’s departure is not an isolated one. De Volksbank lost three board members in a year. After CEO Maurice Oostendorp retired, chief financial officer (CFO) Pieter Veuger was fired and operating officer (COO) Mirjam Verhoeven resigned out of dissatisfaction with the internal state of affairs. Internal dissatisfaction arose about the new CEO Martijn Gribnau because of an extended American work permit, which put the bank at higher risks.

An independent investigation recently showed that although there was no structural harassment and intimidation at the top of De Volksbank, it did happen incidentally. “If that has also led to an unsafe work situation for some,” they write in their final report. According to the researchers, the supervisory board should take ‘longer and more comprehensively’ the time to appoint new directors.

In the press statement about his departure, Van Rutte says that he also relates the conclusions from the report about the quarrels at the top ‘to the supervisory board and to myself as chairman of the board’. Although he does not state that this is the direct reason for his premature departure: “Measures have now been taken that contribute to a better and healthy dynamic again.”

With Van Rutte, the supervisory board of De Volksbank loses the only member who has worked at a relatively high level as a banker. The bank says it has already started the search for a successor. Van Rutte will remain on board until a successor has been appointed. His current term ran until April 2022.

When SNS Reaal was nationalized, Van Rutte became a supervisory director of the collapsed bancassurance company. When the bank division SNS Bank, later renamed De Volksbank, was split off, the former board member of Fortis Bank Nederland and MeesPierson became chairman of the supervisory board. As a simple savings and mortgage bank, De Volksbank has been hit hard by the low interest rate environment. This makes it increasingly difficult for the State to sell the bank.

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