June 2, 2023
Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to 8,267 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023, 201 billion euros more than in the fourth quarter of 2022. Total insurance technical provisions of euro area insurance corporations increased to 5,918 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023 Increase of €149 billion from the fourth quarter of 2022
Total assets of insurance corporations in the euro area increased to 8,267 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023, compared with 8,067 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2022. Debt securities accounted for 34.3% of the sector’s total assets in the first quarter of 2023. The second largest holding category was mutual fund shares (30.2%), followed by stocks (14.3%) and loans (6.9%).
Holdings of debt securities increased from 2,778 billion euros at the end of the previous quarter to 2,835 billion euros at the end of the first quarter of 2023. Net purchases of debt securities amounted to 37 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023; Price and other changes amounted to 17 billion euros (see figure 1). The annual growth rate of debt securities held was -1.8%.
Looking at the outstanding amounts by issuance sector, the annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area general government was -5.1% in the first quarter of 2023, with net issuance in the quarter amounting to 1 billion euros. For debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was -0.3% and quarterly net purchases were 10 billion euros. For debt securities issued by non-euro residents, the annual growth rate was 3.2%, with quarterly net purchases of 28 billion euros.
Diagram 1
Insurance companies holdings of debt securities by issue sector
(quarterly transactions in EUR bn; not seasonally adjusted)
Data on stocks of insurance company debt securities by issuance sector
As for insurance companies’ holdings of mutual fund shares, they increased to 2,497 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023, from 2,427 billion euros in the previous quarter, with net purchases of 20 billion euros and price and other changes of 48 billion euros (see chart 2). The year-on-year growth rate was 0.5% in the first quarter of 2023.
The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares/units held by insurance companies was 1.0% in the first quarter of 2023, with net purchases amounting to 11 billion euros in the quarter. For holdings of euro area MMF shares/units, the annual growth rate was 0.4%, with quarterly net purchases amounting to €9 billion. For investment fund shares/units issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 2.0%, with quarterly net purchases close to €0 billion.
Diagram 2
Insurance corporations’ holdings of mutual fund shares/units by issue sector
(quarterly transactions in EUR bn; not seasonally adjusted)
Data on holdings of mutual fund shares held by insurance companies by issuance sector
In terms of principal liabilities, total insurance company technical provisions amounted to 5,918 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 5,769 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2022 (see Appendix, Table 1). Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 88.1% of total insurance technical reserves in the first quarter of 2023. Unit-linked products amounted to 1,505 billion euros and accounted for 28.9% of total life insurance technical reserves.
Total premiums written by insurance companies in the euro area increased to 1,219 billion euros in 2022 (equivalent to 17.5% of total technical reserves at the end of 2021), compared to 1,196 billion euros in 2021 (17.5% of total technical reserves at the end of 2020) . ). Over the same period, claims increased from 885 billion euros (12.9%) to 931 billion euros (13.4%) and closure costs increased from 126 billion euros (1.8%) to 136 billion euros (2.0%) .
For inquiries please use the inquiry form for statistical information.
Notes: ‘Other assets’ includes cash and deposits, insurance technical reserves and related claims, financial derivative instruments, non-financial assets and residual assets. “Private sector” refers to the non-government euro area. “Mutual Fund” includes money market funds and non-money market funds. Hyperlinks in the main body of the statistical publication and in the appendix table lead to data which may change in subsequent publications due to revisions. The figures presented in the appendix table are a snapshot of the data as of the current publication date.
