Rabobank CEO Draijer to leave in a year, search for successor starts

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Rabobank, the Dutch cooperative bank, said on Friday that Chief Executive Wiebe Draijer intended to step down on Oct. 1 2022 and the company would begin a search for his replacement.

Draijer, 57, has been in the top job at Rabobank since 2014, and oversaw a major overhaul at the Netherlands' third largest bank, reducing branch offices and centralising power at the company's head offices in Utrecht.

Rabobank, known globally as an agricultural lender, is also the largest mortgage lender in the Netherlands.

In August it reported a net profit of 2.16 billion euros ($2.54 billion) over the first half of 2021, as a strong economic recovery helped it to release previous provisions taken amid the coronavirus crisis for bad loans.

The bank's chair, Marjan Trompetter, thanked Draijer in a statement on Friday for his work and the long-lead time he had given the bank to "find a worthy successor."

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Edmund Blair)