Geldanlage: Banken erwarten durch Altersvorsorgedepots enorme Zuflüsse – aber kaum Gewinn

Deutsche banks and fintechs anticipate massive investments of private individuals in the capital market due to the introduction of a new retirement savings deposit in 2027. Heiner Herkenhoff, Managing Director of the German Association of Banks, expressed optimism that this will bring a breakthrough. He pointed out that many Germans want to save for retirement, but currently, the country is not depositing enough money into the capital market.

The German banking sector hopes that this new retirement savings deposit will change this situation. It will provide a state subsidy of up to 540 euros per year and a maximum child allowance of 300 euros starting from January 1, 2027. Katharina Lüth, Chief Executive of the deposit platform Raisin, noted that this move comes from a population that has been increasingly oriented towards the capital market in recent years.

Many fintechs and banks are working intensively on offers for the retirement savings deposit. The entire industry expects huge inflows. US fund giant Vanguard estimates that private clients will invest around 150 billion euros there in the first five years after the deposit's introduction. Rating agency S&P projects additional net inflows of 26 to 56 billion euros per year in private retirement savings after a one to two-year implementation phase.

The law on the retirement savings reform is the biggest innovation in private retirement savings since over 25 years. It replaces the Riester pension, which was introduced in 2002 but deemed too expensive and complicated by experts. The reform will require all providers to offer a simple standard deposit with costs limited to a maximum of one percent of the deposited capital.

Travis Spence, who manages the ETF business at JP Morgan Asset Management, stated that due to the fee ceiling, ETFs will play a central role in the retirement savings deposit. Many financial institutions hope to attract new customers and retain existing ones with their retirement savings deposit offerings. DZ Bank CEO Cornelius Riese expects competition in a dimension that is not so frequent in the financial services industry.

DWS CEO Stefan Hoops believes that every reasonably thinking German will set up a retirement savings deposit. The daughter company of Deutsche Bank wants to provide service staff in call centers to help with this. The entire fund industry hopes to significantly increase its share in Germany thanks to the reform. Compared to 2025, open market funds, which include ETFs, collected 86 billion euros in new money overall.

Scalable, a fintech, is optimistic about a new investment boom but warns that due to the government-imposed price cap, it may be difficult for many banks to make significant profits with the retirement savings deposit. "I believe few providers will make a lot of profit with this product," said Lüth, the CEO of Raisin. The real allure lies in keeping customers for 20, 30, or even 40 years, she explained.

Scalable is also following this approach with an attractive offer, offering a total expense ratio (TER) of up to 0.15 percent annually, even zero percent in the first year, and free account and deposit management. "Our goal is to cover our marginal costs," said Scalable's Co-CEO Erik Podzuweit. However, the real opportunity is to bind customers for a long time, he added. This strategy is also being pursued by the fintech Scalable.