FRANKFURT -- German banks and money managers last week proposed launching individual savings accounts for both private pension savings and second-pillar corporate plans.
The Bundesverband Deutsche Banken and the Bundesverband Deutscher Investment Gesellschaft- en proposed that corporate plan sponsors be allowed to offer defined contribution plans along with defined benefit plans, which already are allowed.
The organizations also asked the German government to give unit-linked savings instruments designed for pension-related savings the same tax benefits that currently apply to insurance vehicles used for pension provision.
The BDB and BDI were responding to recently announced government pension reform plans that over time would reduce state pension benefits and encourage greater private pension-related savings.
Draft legislation is expected to go to the German parliament within two months.
