Euro area insurance corporation statistics: first quarter of 2022

1 June 2022

• Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €8,911 billion in first quarter of 2022, €329 billion lower than in fourth quarter of 2021
• Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations dropped to €6,643 billion in first quarter of 2022, down €308 billion from fourth quarter of 2021

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations decreased to €8,911 billion in the first quarter of 2022, from €9,240 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Debt securities accounted for 37.0% of the sector's total assets in the first quarter of 2022. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (30.0%), followed by equity (12.2%) and loans (7.0%).

Holdings of debt securities decreased to €3,296 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2022 from €3,490 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of debt securities amounted to €6 billion in the first quarter of 2022 (see Chart 1); price and other changes amounted to -€188 billion. The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -1.0%.

Looking at holdings by issuing sector, the annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area general government was -1.7% in the first quarter of 2022, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €4 billion. As regards debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was -1.0%, and quarterly net sales amounted to €2 billion. For debt securities issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 0.5%, with quarterly net sales close to € 0 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 decreased to €2,673 billion in the first quarter of 2022, from €2,776 billion in the previous quarter, with net purchases of €17 billion (see Chart 2) and price and other changes of -€120 billion. The year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter of 2022 was 5.6%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was ‑1.6% in the first quarter of 2022, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €4 billion. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was 6.0%, with quarterly net purchases amounting to €21 billion. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 8.3%, with quarterly net sales 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 €6,643 billion in the first quarter of 2022, down from €6,950 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 (see Annex, Table 1). Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 89.7% of total insurance technical reserves in the first quarter of 2022. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,558 billion, accounting for 26.1% of total life insurance technical reserves.

Euro area insurance corporations' total written premiums rose to €1,198 billion in 2021 (corresponding to 17.5% of total insurance technical reserves at end-2020), up from €1,094 billion in 2020 (16.6%). In the same period, claims increased from €835 billion (12.7%) to €889 billion (13.0%) and acquisition expenses rose from €119 billion (1.8%) to €126 billion (1.8%).

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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.