The Country 12/06/25: Todd Charteris talks to Jamie Mackay

Rabobank’s chief executive discussed the bank’s Fieldays breakfast, where Finance Minister Nicola Willis spoke about her clear vision for the primary sector, including using wool carpets in Kāinga Ora in state homes. He also talks about a positive result in the Federated Farmers banking survey.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Samuel Whitelock, a rugby great. We couldn't quite get him
onto the stage in time. He's next up to the
batter's box. So we went with another rugby great, the
West Coast rugby captain from nineteen ninety six and nineteen
ninety seven, perhaps more famous these days for being the
chief executive of Rabobank, Todd charteris. Those were the days, Todd.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Those were the days you learned a lot but moved
on from there.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, okay, well you're very brief about your Foddy career.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, it actually was Philly brief.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
We played a Renfhilly Shield game which was pretty cool,
but that against we played Auckland. Actually they came down
on the way, played Kenbury on the weekend, played us
on Tuesday and went on to play O Targo and
we did a lot of tackling that day.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
So well, they would have been sort of a Carlos
Spencer team.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Was it.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
He was in I remember Shaun Fitzpatrick was on the bench,
Zim Zen was on the bench, but the other had
our team stacked with all backs in front row that
Olive Brown played hooker actually, so it was interesting experience.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay, the small thing. We went to the Rabobank breakfast.
She had Finance Minister Nicola Willis speaking along with your
chief economist or your senior macro strategist, whatever you call them.
We've been picked in Great Bloke from Sydney. But I
thought Nicola Willis spoke really well and she had a
clear vision for not only New Zealand but the primary sector. Now.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Look, I think I think Nichola was did an outstanding job.
And I agree she answered the questions really directly. But
her vision is very clear and it's about building economic
growth and prosperity, and it starts in the rural sector.
And so I think a message was well received and
I think you know, we've we've heard it for the
last couple of days around the field days it's been

(01:39):
it's been really positive.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
And the other big announcement she made this morning was
the fact that Koger Aura has announced it will use
wall carpet and new State homes from July. Initially they
put out a tender, they didn't include wall in there.
They're going to now and apparently the wall carpet industry
came to the party and we're competitive just as competitive
price wise with the synthetic carpets.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Look, it's an outstanding announcement and really positive for the industry,
and not before time, Jamie, but let's move forward.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's great, absolutely fantastic announcement. Now, bankers, interest rates, you've
been under. The banks have been under a bit of hate,
mind you, I must say, and you must be pleased
about this with all these numbers that Federated Farmers are
coming out with around their banking survey, you guys, and
I suppose you should because you only bank Farmers came
out pretty well. In fact, they probably came out best.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah. Look, we did come out pretty well.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
There's always work to do, but you know, when you
see some of the measures around communication and how banks
communicate with clients, it was really positive. And I think
the other thing, and I know you're always going on
about overdraft rates, ours was consistently lower because of our
all in one product, which is a standout in the
market as well.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
So I was pretty pleased to.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, there is a bit of an issue there, to
be fair to me, having a crack at the banks
on overdraft rates because some of them are profiteering.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, yeah, I can only talk about ours, which on
the survey was significantly lower than the others, so yeah,
maybe it's a question for others.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Jamie, good one, you Todd, thank you very much for
hosting us for breakfast this morning.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
You do a great job and thanks for all the
work you do and you're great to catch up. Cheers,