BMW 2007 Annual Report Download - page 18

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16 Group Management Report
10 Group Management Report
10 A Review of the Financial Year
13 General Economic Environment
17 Review of Operations
41 BMW Stock and Bonds
44 Disclosures relating to Takeover
Regulations and Explanatory Report
47 Financial Analysis
47 – Internal Management System
49 – Earnings Performance
51 – Financial Position
52 – Net Assets Position
55 – Subsequent Events Report
55 Value Added Statement
57 – Key Performance Figures
58 – Comments on BMW AG
62 Risk Management
68 Outlook
Business environment for financial services
in 2007
As in the previous year, the financial services busi-
ness during the first half of 2007 was influenced by
high interest rate levels on the money and capital
markets. The European Central Bank (ECB) con-
tinued to pursue the tighter monetary policies initi-
ated in 2006, increasing the reference interest rate
over the course of the year by a further 50 basis
points to 4.00 %. By the middle of the year, the Bank
of England (BoE) had also raised its reference inter-
est rate by a further 75 basis points to 5.75 %,
whereas the US Federal Reserve (Fed) kept its rate
at the same level.
The second half of 2007 saw the onset of the
subprime crisis on the US mortgage market and
a resulting confidence crisis on the financial markets.
The BMW Group has not been left unaffected by
these developments. While the ECB decided not to
change the reference interest rate, the BoE reduced
its rate by 25 basis points. The Fed even reduced
its rate by a total of 100 basis points. Despite these
moves, refinancing conditions deteriorated
signifi-
cantly as credit spreads widened sharply across
all
sectors, thereby putting strain on the earnings of the
financial services sector worldwide.
Competition on the market for automobile-re-
lated financial services increased in intensity. The
trend is likely to continue due to products being
of-
fered by banks (private customer business) and other
manufacturer-related financial service providers.
The trend towards leasing-related products remains
unchanged. These are being supplemented increas-
ingly by other products such as insurance policies.