Euro area insurance corporation statistics: second quarter of 2023

31 August 2023

• Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €8,267 billion in second quarter of 2023, €18 billion higher than in first quarter of 2023
• Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations rose to €5,934 billion in second quarter of 2023, up €27 billion from first quarter of 2023

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations increased to €8,267 billion in the second quarter of 2023, from €8,249 billion in the first quarter of 2023. Debt securities accounted for 34.2% of the sector's total assets in the second quarter of 2023. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (30.6%), followed by equity (14.3%) and loans (6.9%).

Holdings of debt securities increased to €2,829 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2023 from €2,827 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of debt securities amounted to €7 billion in the second quarter of 2023; price and other changes amounted to -€6 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 -4.7% in the second quarter of 2023, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €15 billion. As regards debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was 0.3%, and quarterly net purchases amounted to €12 billion. For debt securities issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 1.0%, with quarterly net purchases of €10 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 €2,526 billion in the second quarter of 2023, from €2,493 billion in the previous quarter, with net purchases of €4 billion and price and other changes of €29 billion (see Chart 2). The year-on-year growth rate in the second quarter of 2023 was -0.2%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was 0.7% in the second quarter of 2023, with net purchases in the quarter amounting to €4 billion. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was -0.4%, with quarterly net sales amounting to €2 billion. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 4.8%, with quarterly net purchases of €1 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 €5,934 billion in the second quarter of 2023, up from €5,907 billion in the first quarter of 2023 (see Annex, Table 1). Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 88.1% of total insurance technical reserves in the second quarter of 2023. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,548 billion, accounting for 29.6% of total life insurance technical reserves.

For queries, please use the statistical information request form.

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.