Yesterday, mr Duisenberg, former President of the European central bank and of the Dutch central bank, former director at Rabobank, former Minister of Finance, deceased. A lot of in memoriams will now appear. But they will most likely forget the role of Duisenberg in the 70s, which has been quite significant to the payment industry.
Being PvdA, Minister of Finance and supporting a privatised Postbank was kind of an interesting combination. When Rabobank asked him to become a director, Duisenberg agreed to this. As a result Rabobank's negative stance on the privatisation of the Postbank then softened. This opened the road towards privitisation of the Postbank (quite some years later) and building towards a national payment circuit in the Netherlands (the two were a package deal).
There is more to tell of course, but not here, not now.
