The SPD, the Greens and the FDP still have a considerable need for agreement in the coalition talks when it comes to commissions for life insurance and other contracts for private old-age provision. The Greens are in favor of abolishing commissions in the long term – and there is support for these positions in the SPD. The FDP does not want to shake the previous system. On the other hand, the traffic light coalitionists are unanimous on the issue of banking union.
The positions emerge from a working paper from the negotiations on the financial market. It refers to the status of Wednesday. In the meantime, the three parties may have resolved some differences. The document shows which rifts had to and must be overcome here. However, it is very unlikely that the formation of the coalition would fail because of these questions.
One possible option that was discussed by the traffic light negotiators is the so-called commission cap, i.e. a limit on the maximum commission payments allowed in life insurance. Such a regulation was actually planned by the Union and the SPD for the previous legislative period and introduced as a draft law by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), but failed due to resistance from parts of the CDU / CSU.
“We want to take measures to lower the acquisition costs in life insurance – especially through a commission cap,” it said in the working paper. But the FDP does not want to support that. Instead, it proposes a reform: pension products should be reformed with a view to the interest rate environment in order to keep them attractive and profitable. “We consider legal interventions in the remuneration structure, in particular a commission cap, to be wrong.”
The SPD and the Greens see it differently. The Greens go particularly far, they want to abolish commissions altogether in the long term. “We will gradually completely replace commission-based advice to small investors with independent fee-based advice, and we are also campaigning for an end to commission advice in EU financial market law.”
The Netherlands, the Nordic countries and the UK already have such a ban. But that would be a revolution for the German financial market: Large sales organizations such as DVAG, MLP or Fondsfinanz live from high commissions that customers always pay. In the case of life insurance, this is often five or six percent of the total contributions to be paid by the customer. That can be several thousand euros for a single contract. The result: the return and thus the private retirement provision for customers is negatively affected. Every year, German life insurers pay around seven billion euros in acquisition costs for brokers, in 2020 it was 7.5 billion euros – and this amount is invoiced to their customers.
In the case of fee-based advice, on the other hand, the customer pays the advisor, just as he pays a tax advisor or lawyer. However, fee advice hardly plays a role in view of the competition from the supposedly “free” commission sales. The Greens want to take countermeasures: “In order to create a level playing field, we will remove the hurdles for independent fee advice by establishing a fee structure and introducing mandatory net tariffs for all products.” The insurer may not include any commission for the net tariff.
On the other hand, there is broad agreement on the questions of the banking union and the capital markets union. The three parties aim to “complete the banking union in order to strengthen the European economy and the global competitiveness of German and European institutions”. And on the controversial question of liability within the banking union, it is said that a European reinsurance should be created for the national deposit guarantee systems. Should a system in an EU country be overwhelmed by a bankruptcy wave, this reinsurance would then take effect.