GERMANY - A German SME specialising in seeds and plants has joined the Allianz retirement vehicle.

KWS Saat AG will be paying 3% of their 360 employees' salaries as contributions to the Allianz Unterstützungskasse, a insurance-based pension vehicle with guarantees.

This brings the number of beneficiaries in the Allianz pension vehicle to 100,000 with €1bn in assets under management and annual contribution inflows of €250m - making it "the largest multi-employer provider of Unterstützungskassen" in the market according to the firm.

"By switching to a defined contribution system the retirement provision becomes more transparent for us and more easily calculable," said Philipe von dem Bussche, spokesman for KWS Saat.

The question of liquidity plays a larger role in the current financial market turbulences than before, Allianz noted, as some companies are less willing to take pension assets off their balance sheets in times when liquidity is scarce.

"However, we see companies are more focused on safety and security precisely because of the market crisis - and having a financially-sound partner helps," Allianz claimed.

Another problem, according to a recent study by German insurer HDI Gerling, is a lack of employee contributions to retirement provision.

its study found although almost 50% of German consumers have between €25 and €200 disposable income available every month to put into a retirement pot, only 3% are considering to put this money in a pension product.

"The sub-prime crisis and the drop on the stock exchanges has increased people's fear of investing in equities," the insurer noted. (See earlier IPE story: German investors cut pension savings)

"Only 15% of the interviewed want to continue to invest their pension savings in equities."

Allianz and KWS Saat are trying to counter that problem through a special agreement in the contract which will see the company reward any contribution an employee makes themselves with a further €25 in employer contributions.