July 2022

German government invests pension assets in oil, gas firms despite ESG index switch

The German government continues to invest public pension and social security assets in oil, coal and gas companies on the equity market, despite announcing that it would switch to an ESG index by the end of the year. According to a report by investigative documentary series Panorama, the German government invests a total of €573.59m in oil, gas and coal companies on the equity market to finance the pensions of civil servants. The government has confirmed that it has invested more...

German regulator adds more guidelines for occupational schemes’ risk assessment reports

The German financial supervisory authority, BaFin, has released further guidelines for occupational pension schemes to improve their own risk assessment reports, which that are so far not in line with the requirements set by the regulator. IORPs are not meeting the minimum requirements specified in the circular 09/2020 (VA), that provides information on the interpretation of regulations on own risk assessment (ERB) according to paragraph 234d of the Insurance Supervision Act (VAG). The ERB circular recommends occupational schemes to structure risk...

June 2022

German government to set minimum pension fund investment quota for VC allocations

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) is planning to set a minimum investment quota for venture capital investment allocations by public and private pension plans, according to a report by Investment & Pensions Europe. The proposal would result in a total of €30 billion invested in VC funds as the government looks to boost the amount of capital available to start-ups. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has drafted a start-up...

People in Germany retired earlier with slightly higher pensions in 2021

For years, the average retirement age in Germany has been increasing, but 2021 saw a little blip in the trend, with employees retiring a little earlier and with slightly higher pension benefits than in previous years. People retired earlier with higher pensions in 2021 On average, people working in Germany retired a little earlier last year and with slightly higher pensions, according to new figures from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung, which were made available to Bild. In total, 1,435 million employees retired in...

April 2022

Germany set for bumper pension hike amid inflation surge

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition Cabinet on Wednesday gave the green light to the largest hike in pensions in more than a generation. The decision was made against a backdrop of rampant inflation, with pensions in Germany adjusted each year based on the national average salary. It also comes after some pensioners received no increase last year as the coronavirus pandemic battered the economy. How big is the increase? Pensions in states that made up the former West Germany, where there was no...

March 2022

German government prepares Aktienrente bill

German government prepares Aktienrente bill

The statutory equity pension is an ‘integral part’ of the work of the current coalition government, says FDP’s Vogel The German government is working on a draft law to reform the first pillar scheme with the statutory equity pension model, or Aktienrente, to be finalised in the next few weeks, said Johannes Vogel, deputy chair of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and member of the parliamentary committee on labour and social affairs, in an interview with T-Online.de. The government, supported by...

January 2022

Germany wants to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad each year

Germany's new coalition government wants to attract 400,000 qualified workers from abroad each year to tackle both a demographic imbalance and labour shortages in key sectors that risk undermining the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. "The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramatically slowing down our economy," Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP), told business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "We can only get the problem of an ageing workforce under control with...

Pensions in Germany: How the new government plans to solve an age-old issue

Germany's ageing population continues to cause uncertainty about the future of the pension system. Here's how the new government is planning to make ends meet. The issues with Germany’s pensions pot are well documented. Thanks to the country’s ageing population, over the next 10-15 years, a huge number of people will go from being tax payers to pension recipients, creating a troubling imbalance between people paying into the system and people drawing money out. It’s a problem that has been plaguing...

Germany’s Aging Population Means 5 Million Fewer Workers

Germany’s population is aging and the impact is starting to get real, according to Holger Schaefer, senior economist with the IW economic institute in Cologne. In 2022, the workforce is set to shrink by more than 300,000 people as more reach retirement age than start working, and it will get worse in the coming years, he said on Twitter. By the end of the decade, there could be more than 5 million fewer workers, unless immigration can plug the gap. Read more...

Germans see pandemic, pensions as biggest topics for 2022-poll

Germans want their new government to focus on fighting the coronavirus pandemic and safeguarding pensions in 2022, with fewer people wanting them to prioritise the climate crisis, an opinion poll showed on Sunday. The survey by pollsters Insa for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper showed that 61% of the 2,004 people questioned think combating the pandemic is the most important task of the government, followed by securing pensions. Germans also want the government to deal with a shortage of staff...