Rente overhaul urgent as Deutsche Börse chief warns of mounting fiscal strain
Stephan Leithner, CEO of Deutsche Börse, warned the statutory rente alone will not secure an adequate standard of living in old age and called for a sweeping overhaul of Germany’s pension architecture. He spoke at the company’s seat in Eschborn and urged that capital-market-based private and occupational savings must play a much larger role. Leithner pressed policymakers to act as federal transfers swell and current pension levels fall short.
Rente: Leithner’s demands and concrete proposals
Leithner was blunt on the adequacy of the current safety level. “With regard to living costs, a pension level of 48 percent cannot be described as anything other than antisocial. It is nowhere near enough, ” he said, calling for a total level of up to 65 percent—while noting that such an outcome cannot be delivered by the statutory system alone. He proposed stronger market-based instruments, a mandatory expansion of occupational pensions and a larger state-led start for childhood savings.
Fiscal strain, government measures and legal changes
Leithner warned that ever-larger sums from the federal budget are being used to plug holes in the pension fund. The federal government’s Rentenpaket 2025 fixes the pension level at 48 percent through 2031 and the federal budget will channel more than €120 billion into the statutory pension system in 2026. The Bundestag has already enacted a new state-managed Altersvorsorgedepot, passed on 27 March 2026 (ET) with votes from major parliamentary groups; the law replaces the previous scheme and opens state-backed saving in stocks, funds and ETFs.
Push for bAV, a €4, 000 birth bonus and account integration
Leithner welcomed recent steps such as the Frühstart-Rente and the new Altersvorsorgedepot but urged stronger initial incentives. He argued the Frühstart-Rente – which currently funds a child’s depot with €10 monthly from age six – should begin with a €4, 000 birth payment to exploit compound returns. He also called for the Frühstart-Rente and the Altersvorsorgedepot to be interoperable so savers do not need to open multiple accounts. On employer-based pensions, he insisted that bAV should be included in “every employment contract”: currently roughly half of employees participate, while he pointed to Netherlands and Switzerland participation rates of about 90 percent as a target benchmark.
Leithner also proposed tax-free special payments into children’s depots, citing a model in the United States where grandparents may contribute significant amounts tax-free.
Immediate reactions and political timetable
“We can no longer watch as ever-larger billions from the federal budget must be raised to stop the holes in the pension fund, ” Leithner said, pressing urgency on policymakers. He described recent legislative moves as “recently unthinkable” and expressed confidence that political momentum is building: Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz has announced a reweighting of the three pillars of retirement provision, and a cross-party pension commission established by coalition partners is due to deliver concrete reform proposals by mid-year.
What comes next is a rapid political agenda: the Rentenkommission’s proposals and the government’s reweighting plan will determine whether Leithner’s calls for mandatory bAV, a €4, 000 birth incentive and broader capital-market integration move from proposal to policy. Pressure to find a solution, Leithner said, “could not be greater. ” Policymakers now face choice points on funding, design and social safeguards for a reformed system that still must rely on the statutory backbone even as private and occupational tools expand the safety net.
As the commission prepares its recommendations, the debate over how to secure adequate retirement income while containing federal fiscal transfers will dominate the agenda and shape legislative choices on the future of the rente.
