Stefan Wintels, chief executive of Germany’s development bank KfW, has called for a wider rollout of capital‑backed pensions. “We need a reform of social systems, especially pension provision” he told the German news portal “Focus”.
He explained that while the topic is complex, a comparison between decades of stock‑market growth and the low interest rates on savings accounts shows that “unfortunately, huge opportunities to grow wealth for the broader population were missed”. Wintels added that the evidence is clear.
Previously worked for Citigroup for many years before joining KfW, Wintels said a pension plan funded by capital markets outperforms all other investment models. He noted that many countries, including those with social‑democratic governments, started shifting toward this approach 20 or 30 years ago and that, to his knowledge, no nation has regretted the change.
In Germany, the model has not progressed beyond early attempts by the Free Democratic Party (FDP) while the current traffic‑light coalition (SPD, Greens, FDP) has not yet introduced it.
