VBL. Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder.

Institution under Public Law

1929

Foundation of the Supplementary Pension Fund of the Reich and the Länder (ZRL) in Berlin

1951

Renamed to Pension Institution of the Federal and State Governments (VBL) 

1967

Introduction of the comprehensive pension system

1997

Introduction of supplementary pension in the added federal states

2001

Launch of a new and modernised pension scheme based on a points model

2002

Introduction of supplementary voluntary insurance

2011

Launch of the FindyourPension website, providing cross-state pension information for researchers

2012

Launch of the customer portal Meine VBL

2022

Start of electronic data exchange between VBL and the German state pension scheme (DRV)

2023

Launch of the Digital Pension Overview, VBL one of the first three providers

Supervision

The VBL is under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Finance. The voluntary pension insurance scheme of the VBL is under the supervision of BaFin (the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority).

Bodies

Management board with 17 members, including three full-time board members, supervisory body with 38 members

Participating employers

5,483 (federal and state governments, around 1,600 municipal employers, 34 social insurance providers, approx. 3,700 other employers.) This makes the VBL the largest supplementary pension schemes for public sector employees in Germany.

VBL employees

Insured persons

5.4 mil. insured persons

Beneficiaries.

1.5 mil. pensioners

Scope of benefits

Old-age, reduced earnings capacity and survivors' pensions for public sector employees under the collective agreements for compulsory insurance schemes. Plus, an insurance product on a voluntary basis for additional, capital-funded old-age pension provision

Benefits

EUR 6 billion per annum

Membership

aba - Arbeitsgemeinschaft für betriebliche Altersversorgung e.V. (Berlin), EAPSPI - European Association of Public Sector Pension Institutions, GVG - Society for Insurance Science and Design

 

Figures dated: 31.12.2025

 

History

The VBL was founded in Berlin on 26 February 1929 during the Weimar Republic under the original name Zusatzversorgungsanstalt des Reichs und der Länder (ZRL). Even back then, the task of the ZRL was to provide workers in the Reich administration and the administrations of the participating federal states and their surviving dependants with allowances to the statutory pension in order to compensate the unequal treatment between civil servants and non-civil servants in the public sector. At the beginning of the 1950s, the VBL was given its current name and moved to Karlsruhe. Following the reunification of Germany, the supplementary pension scheme was also introduced in the new federal states in 1997.