Heribert Karch, the former chief executive officer of the German industry-wide pension fund MetallRente, has set up his own consultancy – Heribert Karch Consult.

Karch will no longer be all-round active within the occupational pension market in the future, only available for “my old home” MetallRente, or for lectures and moderating events, he told IPE.

Karch was CEO of MetallRente since its inception by the social partners, the umbrella organisation of the regional employers’ associations in the metal and electrical industry Gesamtmetall and the trade union IG Metall, in 2001.

He retired last December after 20 years spent in the leading position at the German pension scheme.

The former MetallRente CEO received the IPE Award for Outstanding Industry Contribution in Madrid last December just a few weeks before retiring.

Since then, Karch has been working on finalising his contribution to the 5th annual study on the financial behaviour of young people published by MetallRente.

“It is the last study that I co-edit alongside two professors. The study will be on the market in early May. The results are really very exciting,” he told IPE.

Under Karch´s tenure MetallRente has reached 50,044 sponsoring companies, 859,790 contracts and contributions for €72.08m, according to the latest figures published by the pension scheme in February.

The initial forecast of the potential development of MetallRente after its inception was different: “I stated 5,000 companies and 400,000 pension promises,” Karch recalled in his exit interview with IPE.

Karch has also been involved in the design of the law to strengthen occupational pensions – Betriebsrentenstärkungsgesetz – passed in 2018 that creates the framework for the introduction of pure defined contribution (DC) plans.

MetallRente has also conducted preparatory work for new DC models, but the decision will be taken by IG Metall and Gesamtmetall.

This week the German Federation of Chemical Employers’ Associations (BAVC) and the trade union IGBCE agreed to potentially sign the first industry-wide social partner model with pure DC plans for occupational pensions.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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