DHL 2002 Annual Report Download - page 75

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74
exchanges, the demand for investment alternatives rises. Our response: innovative
savings products such as DAX Sparbuch, a passbook that features a guaranteed
minimum interest rate and a supplementary bonus if the DAX 30 develops positively.
Logistics finance is increasingly proving itself the growth driver in the Corporate
Banking segment. This development accompanies the trend towards outsourcing,
from which our LOGISTICS Corporate Division benefits directly. Our Financial
Logistic Solutions enable us to fulfill our goal of offering one-stop, end-to-end
solutions. We don’t just manage parts of the logistics supply chain – we arrange its
financing as well.
Low interest rates impact revenue
The Corporate Division’s income fell slightly year-on-year from €8,876 million to
€8,872 million, while Postbank recorded a 1.4% decrease in income. This was primarily
due to the sustained low interest rates on the money and capital markets in 2002. This
decrease did not have any direct impact on earnings because it was accompanied by a
reduction in interest expense.
Earnings rise again
Bucking the market trend, we succeeded in increasing our earnings once again: after
€522 million in the previous year, our profit from operating activities (EBITA) rose
19.0% to €621 million in the year under review. Please see the “Business Developments”
section of the Group Management Report, page 34, for details on the development of
income and expenses.
Postbank’s cost/income ratio improved by 5.9 percentage points to 77.7%; this
was due to a greater increase in the division’s income than in its expenses.
The return on equity (RoE) rose 1.3 percentage points year-on-year to 10.7%.
This ratio serves as a measure of the profitability of the equity that has been utilized.
It increased due to the fact that earnings improved once again.
Growth recorded for all banking products
In the checking accounts business, the number of private checking accounts grew
from 3.75 million in the previous year to 3.94 million in the year under review. This
corresponded to growth of 5.1%. The number of corporate checking accounts grew
2.0% to 374,000 in the year under review. Direct banking also continued to expand,
with a 29.0% increase in the number of accounts managed online and a 22.7%
increase in the number of telephone banking accounts.
In our investment and deposit business, we distinguish between customer invest-
ment fund accounts and brokerage accounts held with Postbank Easytrade. We were
able to increase the total number of accounts by 2.1% to 694,000. However, this could
not offset the downturn on the international capital markets: Postbank fund assets fell
by a total of 15.0% to €2.9 billion in the year under review. In order to realize synergies
in brokerage account management, we transferred 165,000 investment fund accounts
to Postbank Easytrade in the middle of the year. As a result, the number of brokerage
accounts held with Easytrade rose to a total of 446,000.