Total assets of euro area insurance corporations fall to €8,163bn

Written by Adam Cadle

30/11/2023

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations decreased to €8,163bn in Q3 2023, from €8,270bn in Q2 2023, according to statistics published by the European Central Bank.

Debt securities accounted for 33.8% of the sector’s total assets in Q3 2023. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (30.5%), followed by equity (14.5%) and loans (6.9%).

Holdings of debt securities decreased to €2,761bn at the end of the third quarter of 2023 from €2,829bn at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of debt securities amounted to €2bn in Q3 2023; price and other changes amounted to €66bn. The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -1.8%.

Insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares, decreased to €2,493bn in the third quarter of 2023, from €2,527bn in the previous quarter, with net sales of €2bn and price and other changes of -€31bn. The year-on-year growth rate in the third quarter of 2023 was -0.1%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was 13.6% in the third quarter of 2023, with net purchases in the quarter amounting to €2bn. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was -1.1%, with quarterly net sales amounting to €4bn. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 4.9%, with quarterly net sales amounting to € 0.4bn.

In terms of main liabilities, total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations amounted to €5,810bn in the third quarter of 2023, down from €5,934bn in the second quarter of 2023. Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 87.8% of total insurance technical reserves in the third quarter of 2023. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,531bn, accounting for 30.0% of total life insurance technical reserves.

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