Press Release

Braunschweig, 10 June 2020. Volkswagen Financial Services have developed the first fully digital sales process in the German automobile trade and thereby generated a range of benefits for both dealers and customers. Stefan Imme, Chief Digital Officer at Volkswagen Financial Services AG, points out: "Many customers want a faster, simpler and more secure conclusion of the leasing or financing contract at the car dealership."

The core components of the new process comprise a digital authentication procedure, in which data are read in automatically and therefore further processed without transmission errors, and the digital conclusion of the contract, which only requires a single digital signature from the customer instead of the 14 signatures needed up to now. The result is a highly efficient, secure and environmentally friendly purchasing process for the customer since nothing has to be printed on paper anymore. Moreover, the sales staff in the car dealership can invest the time saved in advising the customer.

Stefan Imme explains further: "Our new digital financing and leasing process offers vehicle buyers a transparent, uncomplicated and paperless buying experience on their tablet. Our dealer partners save time and money and we at Volkswagen Financial Services can interact with our customers across all channels and provide them with digital support: it's a classic win-win-win situation."

This new digital process is based on a customer identity that can be used independently of the respective touchpoint and that, once established, makes cumbersome and repetitive registrations unnecessary. The digital identity was developed in cooperation with Verimi, the cross-sector European identity platform. With the digital Verimi identity, customers can not only manage their contracts with Volkswagen Financial Services, they can also use this account for the services of other partners connected to Verimi without having to legitimate their identity card again with each provider to authenticate themselves. The fact that data security plays a central role is shown by the recent approval of the Verimi platform by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for use within the scope of the German Online Access Act (OZG).

The project is currently running at the Autohaus Holzberg dealership in Braunschweig, a Voets Group partner, and will be extended in the medium term throughout Germany to include all the partner companies of the Volkswagen Group.

Information for editors:

Volkswagen Financial Services are a business division of the Volkswagen AG group of companies and comprise Volkswagen Financial Services AG along with its associated companies, Volkswagen Bank GmbH, Porsche Financial Services, and the financial services companies in the USA and Canada that belong directly or indirectly to Volkswagen AG – with the exception of the financial services of the Scania brand and Porsche Holding Salzburg. The key business fields embrace dealer and customer financing, leasing, the bank and insurance business, fleet management and mobility offers. Volkswagen Financial Services have a total of 16,571 employees worldwide – including 7,414 alone in Germany. Volkswagen Financial Services report total assets of around EUR 223.5 billion, an operating result of EUR 2.96 billion and a portfolio of around 21.5 million current contracts (as at: 31.12.2019).