GERMANY – Invesco’s German arm has recruited Bruno Schmidt-Voss from a Frankfurt-based business consultancy as its new senior sales manager for institutional clients.

Invesco Deutschland said Schmidt-Voss, who joined today, would report to Gunars Balodis, who is the asset manager’s institutional sales head. In his new role, Schmidt-Voss will mostly focus on corporate clients and insurers in Germany.

Prior to joining Invesco, Schmidt-Voss, 48, was a partner at the Frankfurt consultancy S.U.P. where he was head of financial services. Before S.U.P., he was a managing director at Fidelity’s German arm.

“Offering professional advice is essential to competing in institutional sales. With more than 20 years of experience in advising institutional clients, Bruno Schmidt-Voss has what it takes to develop product solutions for our clients,” commented Balodis.

Balodis himself joined Invesco from Deka Investment in early January. He succeeded Rainer Schröder, who joined Threadneedle Investments last July 1 as Threadneedle’s new head of German distribution.

Invesco currently runs $4.8bn (€3.9bn) for German institutional clients. In that market, it has also emerged as a specialist for so-called “overtime accounts”.

Pioneered by German car giant Volkswagen in 1998, the accounts enable an employee to save, on a tax-deferred basis, the monetary equivalent of overtime hours, unused holiday, cash bonuses or a portion of salary to help finance early retirement or any time off work.

In early 2004, Invesco won a mandate to set up and manage the accounts for 18,700 employees at Airbus Deutschland. The mandate was broadened in late 2005, when Airbus’ parent EADS said Invesco would establish the accounts for its 21,400 German employees.

This year, Invesco aims to acquire between 15 and 20 new mandates for the accounts. Invesco has generated around €40m in assets from the Airbus/EADS mandate alone.