Off-Balance-Sheet financing instruments and unrecognized assets

In addition to the assets shown in the consolidated balance sheet, DB Group also uses off-balance-sheet financial instruments and assets that cannot be recognized in the balance sheet.

Most of the off-balance-sheet financial instruments were, up to the year under review, mainly leased or rented items (operating leases) for which a present value was determined. Due to the application of IFRS 16 Μ191 F., since the year under review, off-balance-sheet financial instruments are no longer used to a significant extent.

We use factoring to sell smaller volumes of receivables (as of December 31, 2019: € 685 million; as of December 31, 2018: € 686 million).

With regard to the company pension scheme for employees, the obligations under each retirement scheme are, to some extent, covered and netted by plan assets which are capable of being netted. As of December 31, 2019, total obligations amounted to € 12,749 million (as of December 31, 2018: € 10,635 million) and the fair value of plan assets was € 6,034 million (as of December 31, 2018: € 4,766 million). The balancing process leads to a reduction in the balance sheet total. The net obligation recognized as of December 31, 2019 on the balance sheet was € 5,354 
million (as of December 31, 2018: € 4,823 million). In the year under review, one-time allocations to the plan assets of individual benefit plans were made by DB Arriva in Great Britain (€ 392 million).

FURTHER INFORMATION ON FUNDAMENTALS AND METHODS