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198 2014 Registration Document

Consolidated Financial Statements Year ended December 31, 2014

5

Notes to the Consolidated statements

36.4

CREDIT RISK

The Group’s estimated exposure to credit risk is presented below:

Exposure to credit risk

(in € millions)

December 31, 2014

December 31, 2013

Investments in non-consolidated companies

78

60

Other long-term investments

1,262

1,086

TOTAL OTHER NON-CURRENT FINANCIAL ASSETS

1,340

1,146

Consumer credit granted by the financial

services companies

5,980

5,602

Trade receivables

2,260

2,213

Other current financial assets

504

359

Other assets

(1)

551

545

Cash and cash equivalents

3,113

4,757

MAXIMUM EXPOSURE TO CREDIT RISK

13,748

14,641

(1) Excluding prepaid expenses.

36.4.1 RETAIL BUSINESS

◗

1) Trade receivables

Trade receivables correspond mainly to amounts receivable from

franchisees (for delivered goods and franchise fees), suppliers (mainly

rebates) and tenants of shopping mall units (rent). Impairment losses

are recognized where necessary, based on an estimate of the debtor’s

ability to pay the amount due and the age of the receivable.

At December 31, 2014, trade receivables net of impairment amounted

to €1,117 million (see Note 23). At that date, past due receivables

amounted to a net €129 million, with receivables over 90 days past

due representing 2.9% of total trade receivables net of impairment. No

additional depreciation has been recognized for these receivables as the

Group considers that the risk of non-recovery is very limited.

◗

2) Investments

The Group’s short-term cash management strategy focuses on acquiring

liquid investments that are easily convertible into cash and are subject

to an insignificant risk of changes in value.

Investments are made for the most part by Corporate Treasury and

Financing, in diversified instruments such as term deposits with leading

banks and mutual funds classified by the AMF as “money market” and

“short-term money market” funds without any withdrawal restrictions.

Investments made at the country level are approved by Corporate Treasury

and Financing.

Counterparty risk monitoring procedures are implemented to track

counterparties’ direct investment strategies and the underlying assets

held by mutual funds in which the Group invests. The Group’s objective

is to never hold more than 5% of a fund’s units and to never invest more

than €250 million in any single fund.

36.4.2 BANCASSURANCE BUSINESS

◗

1) Credit risk management

To protect against default by borrowers, the Group’s finance companies

have set up systems to check the quality and repayment capacity of their

customers. These include:

■

decision-making aids such as credit scoring applications, income/debt

simulation tools and credit history checking procedures;

■

interrogation of positive and negative credit history databases, where

they exist;

■

active management of collection processes;

■

credit risk monitoring and control systems.

Within each credit company, a Credit Risk department is responsible

for all of these processes, and the Board of Directors receives copies

of all Credit Risk Management Committee reports.

At Group level, a Credit Risk – Europe unit has been set up to oversee

and implement credit risk management policies in France, Spain, Belgium

and Italy.

◗

2) Provisions for non-performing consumer loans

Consumer loans are classified as non-performing when the Group

believes that there is a risk that all or part of the amount due will not be

recovered (for example, because of overdue payment).

Provision models are developed in accordance with local banking

regulations in each country, according to a two-step process:

■

classification of outstanding loans in uniform risk categories based

on the probability of default; then

■

modeling of the loss given default based on historical data.

In a certain number of countries, specific provisions are also recorded for

certain types of exposures, to comply with local central bank guidelines.