Germany’s Volkswagen Launches Warranty Insurer

With the beginning of 2011, German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen AG launched a new insurance entity that will offer guarantee, or extended warranty insurance to Volkswagen customers.

The car company was cleared by Germany's financial services regulator, BaFin, to launch Volkswagen Versicherung AG Insurance on Jan. 1. The insurer is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, which is owned by Volkswagen.

"We are already ready in the starting blocks," said Frank Witter, chairman of the board of management for Volkswagen Financial Services, in a statement. "Through Volkswagen Versicherung, we will be offering our customers an optimized product with an even more extensive range of services."

Witter added that the guarantee insurance business in Germany has been growing steadily for several years. By entering the market as a primary insurer, Volkswagen Financial Services "is consistently pursuing its growth and service strategy."

At the end of 2009, Volkswagen Financial Services had assets of 60 billion euros, a pretax profit of 554 million euros and more than 6 million contracts in force. The unit also had 6,775 staff, more than 4,290 of them in Germany.

(By David Pilla, international editor, BestWeek: [email protected])