Special Reports » OTHER REPORTS » GERMANY

The arrival of contractual trust arrangements in Germany has seen a shift away from the traditional pensionskassen to more flexible forms of investment. Elizabeth Cripps reports.

— Matthias Schellenberg, ING

Germany is a land of opportunity as far as asset managers are concerned. This belief is behind ING’s decision to focus on Germany with the opening of a new office in Frankfurt, both to service existing German clients previously serviced out of The Hague and to mine the German market for new clients and new opportunities.

— Wrede: ‘liberalisation changed little’

A host of regulatory reforms as well as an immature pensions system means Germany is uniquely attractive to domestic and foreign investment managers. Yuri Bender reports.

To maintain current living standards after retirement, today’s young Germans will need to rely more heavily upon privately funded pensions than their parents, and will hence need to accumulate significantly greater capital amounts, says Dirk Popielas.

Exchange traded funds offer German institutions numerous benefits, namely that they are easy to trade, transparent, flexible and low cost, says Thomas Meyer zu Drewer.