When Norbert Rollinger pulls out his service card in the Vatican, which identifies him as an employee of the Holy See, the Swiss Guards are likely to stand particularly to attention. Because the German insurance manager plays a decisive role in your pension. He manages the pensions of all 5,000 Vatican employees part-time on behalf of the Pope.
Rollinger would be well utilized even without this task. The 58-year-old, who lives in Cologne, heads the R+V insurance group in Wiesbaden, which belongs to the cooperative financial group made up of Raiffeisen banks and Volksbanken. In September 2022, the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV) in Berlin also elected him President. In politically difficult times, he is the top lobbyist for German insurers. Since the beginning of 2022 he has also had this small honorary job as president of the Fondo Pensioni Vaticano, the Vatican pension fund. Rollinger confirms this, but does not want to give details.
Not much is known about the discreet institution at Via della Conciliazione 5. With ten employees, it is likely to manage around 700 million euros. Like all pension funds, this particular fund has suffered from the low interest rates in recent years and could use Rollinger’s professional perspective.
The Vatican employees owe the fact that an external manager and no clergyman runs the fund at all to Pope Francis. He comprehensively reformed their pension scheme: It used to be closely linked to the papal property administration with the complicated name “Administratio Patrimonii Sedis Apostolicae” (APSA), which is always headed by a cardinal. That is why her boss, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, managed the pension fund until 2016. Francis separated the institutions and made Nino Savelli, professor of finance in Milan, head of pensions. Now Rollinger is at the top.
The Vatican pension system is very special. Because the Fondo Pensioni does not administer additional pensions, but rather the first pillar of old-age provision. This corresponds to the statutory pensions in Germany and most countries in the world. So the Vatican has a fully funded pension system, not a pay-as-you-go system. In the German debate on old-age pensions, Rollinger can certainly contribute this experience from Rome in a meaningful way, if the Vatican institution also works in the long term and does not require any large subsidies from the Church.
“He’s just a good Rhenish Catholic.”
Rollinger does his part-time job in Rome on a voluntary basis. Still, it takes time. The Board of Directors meets in person at least three times a year, as well as online meetings. But his employer – the cooperative financial warehouse – doesn’t seem to mind. That could be because Marija Kolak, the influential president of the Association of German Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken, has very good relations with the Catholic Church. She attends meetings of the Vatican Economic Council as an expert.
Norbert Rollinger not only has experience with asset management as an insurer, as a Catholic he also has the right beliefs for the part-time job. Although he is a Luxembourg citizen, he was born and raised in the Rhineland. Rollinger sits on the church council of his Cologne congregation of St. Matthias and Maria Queen, was an altar boy in Cologne Cathedral and graduated from an archbishop’s high school. “Rollinger likes to do this,” said a source. “He’s just a good Rhenish Catholic.” It is an experience for him to have an office with a view of the Castel Sant’Angelo and to live in the Vatican several times a year. “Sometimes he meets the Pope at the elevator.” And who can say that about his part-time job.