Euro area insurance corporation statistics: first quarter of 2023

2 June 2023

• Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €8,267 billion in first quarter of 2023, €201 billion higher than in fourth quarter of 2022
• Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations rose to €5,918 billion in first quarter of 2023, up €149 billion from fourth quarter of 2022

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations increased to €8,267 billion in the first quarter of 2023, from €8,067 billion 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 category of holdings was investment fund shares (30.2%), followed by equity (14.3%) and loans (6.9%).

Holdings of debt securities increased to €2,835 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2023 from €2,778 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of debt securities amounted to €37 billion in the first quarter of 2023; price and other changes amounted to €17 billion (see Chart 1). The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -1.8%.

Looking at holdings by issuing 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 sales in the quarter amounting to €1 billion. As regards debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was -0.3%, and quarterly net purchases amounted to €10 billion. For debt securities issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 3.2%, with quarterly net purchases of €28 billion.

Chart 1

Insurance 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 increased to €2,497 billion in the first quarter of 2023, from €2,427 billion in the previous quarter, with net purchases of €20 billion and price and other changes of €48 billion (see Chart 2). The year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter of 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 €11 billion. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was 0.4%, with quarterly net purchases amounting to €9 billion. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 2.0%, with quarterly net purchases close to € 0 billion.

Chart 2

Insurance 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 €5,918 billion in the first quarter of 2023, up from €5,769 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 (see Annex, 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, accounting for 28.9% of total life insurance technical reserves.

Euro area insurance corporations' total written premiums rose to €1,219 billion in 2022 (corresponding to 17.5% of total insurance technical reserves at end-2021), up from €1,196 billion in 2021 (17.5% of total insurance technical reserves at end-2020). In the same period, claims increased from €885 billion (12.9%) to €931 billion (13.4%) and acquisition expenses rose from €126 billion (1.8%) to €136 billion (2.0%).
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Notes:

• "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.