In order to offer people a simple access to savings for retirement, the Berlin-based Fintech Vantik announces a partnership with Mastercard and the banking-as-a-service-platform Vodeno. The heart of the cooperation is the combination of a free debit Mastercard with long-term savings: users of the Vantikcard receive 1% cashback on every purchase, which are automatically invested into a sustainable pension fund. Saving for retirement is thus being integrated into everyday life, avoiding the bureaucracy and complexity inherent in other pension schemes. The Vantikcard will be available as of April.

Financial security in retirement is one of the biggest issues for society

More and more people are aware that statutory pension will not meet financial needs in old age at all - and thus more private efforts need to be taken: 26.4 million Germans above 14 years old believe that their private efforts to save for retirement will not be sufficient, a study from Allensbacher Markt- und Werbeträgeranalyse (AWA) in 2020 revealed. These are nearly 2 million more than 4 years ago. At the same time the number of people being threatened by old age poverty in Germany has risen significantly within the last years - up to 3.1 million above 65 years old, as published by Eurostat. This trend emerges also in other countries.

“Despite being aware of the urgent need to boost retirement savings, people still do not act”, says Til Klein, founder of Vantik. “Statutory programmes are far too complex, too bureaucratic and too inflexible to meet the needs of today’s society”, Klein adds. The retirement market lacks an innovative approach to help people save in a simple and flexible way. “With Vantikcard starting a pension becomes a no-brainer. We show that saving for retirement works without a manual”, the founder of Vantik explains.

Saving for retirement as easy as a payment

Peter Bakenecker, Divisional President for Germany and Switzerland at Mastercard, adds: “We are proud to support the development and roll-out of the Vantikcard. We share the vision that starting to save for retirement should be as easy and smooth as a payment process. Therefore we are happy to offer a solution for such a relevant issue in our society together with Vantik.”

The debit Mastercard combines cost control of a traditional bank card through direct charging from the personal bank account with the ability to pay online at more than 70 million retailers worldwide. The Vantikcard can be connected to any favored bank account. It also supports ApplePay and GooglePay.