Total assets of euro area insurance corporations rise by €201bn to €8,267bn

Written by Adam Cadle

02/06/2023

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €8,267bn in Q1 2023, €201bn higher than in Q4 2022, according to figures published by the European Central Bank.

Debt securities accounted for 34.3% of the sector’s total assets in Q1 2023. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (30.2%), followed by equity (14.3%) and loans (6.9%).

Holdings of debt securities increased to €2,835bn at the end of Q1 2023 from €2,778bn at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of debt securities amounted to €37bn in Q1 2023; price and other changes amounted to €17bn. The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -1.8%.

Holdings of investment fund shares increased to €2,497bn in Q1 2023, from €2,427bn in the previous quarter, with net purchases of €20bn and price and other changes of €48bn. The year-on-year growth rate in Q1 2023 was 0.5%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was 1.0% in the first quarter of 2023, with net purchases in the quarter amounting to €11bn.

Total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations amounted to €5,918bn in the first quarter of 2023, up from €5,769bn in Q4 2022. Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 88.1% of total insurance technical reserves in the first quarter of 2023. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,505bn, accounting for 28.9% of total life insurance technical reserves.

Euro area insurance corporations' total written premiums rose to €1,219bn in 2022 (corresponding to 17.5% of total insurance technical reserves at end-2021), up from €1,196bn in 2021 (17.5% of total insurance technical reserves at end-2020).

Related Articles