Financial position

Exceptionally strong liquidity 

The principles and aims of financial management presented in the 2008 Annual Report starting on page 43 are still valid and are being pursued unchanged.

In the first nine months of 2009, the euro remained the main currency in which the Group’s debt is denominated. Its share of our financial debt rose, especially because of the mandatory exchangeable bond issued as part of the sale of Postbank and the collateralisation of the put option. The other basic financial data outlined in the Annual Report are still valid.

The economic and financial crisis is having only a minimal effect on our financing requirements and our refinancing options because our credit quality continues to be rated as adequate and our liquidity is exceptionally high, in part because of the Postbank sale.

As a result, only an average of around 7.1% (previous year: 17.8%) of our unsecured committed credit lines were used in the reporting period. The total volume of these is currently €2.8 billion, €200 million of which had been used as at 30 September 2009. In the first nine months of 2009, we did not have recourse to our commercial paper programme launched at the beginning of 2008.