Euro area insurance corporation statistics: third quarter of 2022

30 November 2022

• Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €8,266 billion in third quarter of 2022, €209 billion lower than in second quarter of 2022
• Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations dropped to €5,944 billion in third quarter of 2022, down €216 billion from second quarter of 2022

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations decreased to €8,266 billion in the third quarter of 2022, from €8,475 billion in the second quarter of 2022. Debt securities accounted for 34.8% of the sector's total assets in the third quarter of 2022. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (29.4%), followed by equity (14.1%) and loans (6.9%).

Holdings of debt securities decreased to €2,878 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2022 from €3,022 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of debt securities were close to € 0 in the third quarter of 2022; price and other changes amounted to -€143 billion (see Chart 1). The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -0.9%.

Looking at holdings by issuing sector, the annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area general government was -3.2% in the third quarter of 2022, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €10 billion. As regards debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was 0.7%, and quarterly net purchases amounted to €5 billion. For debt securities issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 2.2%, with quarterly net purchases of €5 billion.

Chart 1Insurance corporations' holdings of debt securities by issuing sector

(quarterly transactions in EUR billions; not seasonally adjusted)

Turning to insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares, these decreased to €2,431 billion in the third quarter of 2022, from €2,494 billion in the previous quarter, with net sales of €3 billion and price and other changes of -€61 billion (see Chart 2). The year-on-year growth rate in the third quarter of 2022 was 2.8%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was -14.6% in the third quarter of 2022, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €14 billion. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was 3.9%, with quarterly net purchases amounting to €10 billion. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 3.4%, with quarterly net purchases close to € 0 billion.

Chart 2Insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares by issuing sector

(quarterly transactions in EUR billions; not seasonally adjusted)

In terms of main liabilities, total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations amounted to €5,944 billion in the third quarter of 2022, down from €6,160 billion in the second quarter of 2022 (see Annex, Table 1). Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 88.8% of total insurance technical reserves in the third quarter of 2022. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,438 billion, accounting for 27.2% of total life insurance technical reserves.

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Notes:

“With the current release, data on transactions and growth rates are made available for insurance technical reserves and sub-items as of the second quarter of 2021, broken down by insurance reporting sector. The new data can be found in the SDW

• "Other assets" includes currency and deposits, insurance technical reserves and related claims, financial derivatives, non-financial assets and remaining assets.
• "Private sector" refers to euro area excluding general government.
• "Investment funds" includes money market funds and non-money market funds.
• Hyperlinks in the main body of the statistical release and in the annex table lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions. Figures shown in the annex table are a snapshot of the data as at the time of the current release.