The provision for credit losses was € 35 million in 2003 compared to € 144 million in 2002. The € 109 million reduction was primarily attributable to the reduction of credit exposure following the aforementioned deconsolidation of EUROHYPO AG and the sale of most of our North American financial services business.
Total noninterest expenses decreased in 2003 to € 763 million from € 1.3 billion in 2002. The reduction primarily resulted from the disposal of the above-mentioned businesses including the management buyout of 80% of our late-stage private equity portfolio , and is net of several negative factors. These included vacant space costs, sublease losses and other costs of eliminating excess space resulting from headcount reductions and the sale of businesses totaling € 174 million as well as goodwill impairment charges of € 114 million subsequent to decisions regarding the private equity fee-based businesses. In 2002, the noninterest expenses included € 62 million goodwill impairment charges related to the aforementioned management buyout and € 60 million charges in connection with the buyout of our Coinvestment Plans.
At year-end 2003, the alternative assets portfolio of the Corporate Investments Group Division had a carrying value of € 2.9 billion, of which 31% were private equity direct investments, 32% were real estate investments and 37% were private equity indirect and other investments. We continue to monitor the portfolio on a quarterly basis for any potential impairment. If the public equity and high-yield financing markets were to deteriorate, we might determine that further write-downs and valuation adjustments are necessary.