BMW is launching own brand and MINI credit cards and other financial products in conjunction with American Express, the Newcastle Building Society, and the Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary UK Insurance.

BMW will also offer special interest rates on savings plans to drivers who plan to redeem them against a BMW car.

BMW launched its first credit card in Germany in 1997 and now offers them in the US, Spain, Austria, Germany, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In the US and Germany it offers a range of deposit and fund products and in France it offers unsecured lending.

BMW’s financial services division saw turnover increase by 24 per cent last year to €40.4 billion (£27.7 billion). Since 2000, pre-tax profits from financial services have risen from €351m (£240.5 million) to €605m (£414.5 million), an average of 9.5 per cent a year.