On September 18, 2015, when the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that Volkswagen had been cheating about the emissions output of its diesel engine cars, much ink was spilled questioning the future of one of the world’s biggest car manufacturers.
Less focus was placed on the fact that looming behind Volkswagen’s production lines is a large and fast-growing financial services unit that extends financing to individual customers and dealerships, and has within it a fully fledged and licensed bank. Total assets at Volkswagen Financial Services (VFS) grew from €65bn in 2010 to €107bn in 2014, and, as of that date, it had customer deposits worth €26bn, a cost-to-income ratio of 60%, and a net profit of almost €900m.
