Total assets of euro area insurance corporations fall to €8,075bn

Written by Adam Cadle

06/03/2023

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations decreased to €8,075bn in Q4 2022, from €8,265bn in Q3 2022, latest figures published by the European Central Bank have shown.

The decrease in total assets in Q4 2022 was driven mainly by the transfer of assets to recently established pension funds in France.

At the end of Q4 2022, debt securities accounted for 34.5% of the sector’s total assets. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (30%), followed by equity (14.4%) and loans (6.9%).

Holdings of debt securities decreased to €2,788bn at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 from €2,878bn at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of debt securities amounted to €62 bn in the fourth quarter of 2022; price and other changes amounted to -€28bn. The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -3.0%.

Insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares decreased to €2,422bn in the fourth quarter of 2022, from €2,430bn in the previous quarter, with net sales of €23bn and price and other changes of €15bn. The year-on-year growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 0.3%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was 10.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €1bn. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was 0.9%, with quarterly net sales amounting to €25bn. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 1.9%, with quarterly net purchases of €3bn.

In terms of main liabilities, total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations amounted to €5,782bn in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from €5,943bn in the third quarter of 2022. Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 88.8% of total insurance technical reserves in the fourth quarter of 2022. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,451bn, accounting for 28.2% of total life insurance technical reserves.

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