13. Personnel Expenses

The direct remuneration paid to members of the Executive Board totalled € 2,925 thousand for the financial year 2015 (previous year: € 2,959 thousand). See Note 48 for more details on the remuneration paid to the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board.

Social security contributions include payments towards the public pension scheme amounting to € 26,005 thousand (previous year: € 26,046 thousand) and payments to the German pension insurance scheme. There were no significant expenses from the termination of employment in the year under review (previous year: € 1,531 thousand).

Service expense includes payments from defined benefit pension commitments and similar obligations.