Euro area insurance corporation statistics: second quarter of 2021

30 August 2021

• Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €9,118 billion in second quarter of 2021, €76 billion higher than in first quarter of 2021
• Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations rose to €6,855 billion in second quarter of 2021, up €57 billion from first quarter of 2021

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations increased to €9,118 billion in the second quarter of 2021, from €9,042 billion in the first quarter of 2021. Debt securities accounted for 39.0% of the sector's total assets in the second quarter of 2021. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (28.8%), followed by equity (11.4%) and loans (7.2%).

Holdings of debt securities decreased to €3,555 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2021 from €3,578 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of debt securities amounted to €9 billion in the second quarter of 2021; price and other changes amounted to -€15 billion (see Chart 1). The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -0.2%.

Looking at holdings by issuing sector, the annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area general government was 0.2% in the second quarter of 2021, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €3 billion. As regards debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was -2.5%, and quarterly net sales amounted to €9 billion. For debt securities issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 2.5%, with quarterly net purchases of €4 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 €2,626 billion in the second quarter of 2021, from €2,537 billion in the previous quarter, with net purchases of €39 billion and price and other changes of €50 billion (see Chart 2). The year-on-year growth rate in the second quarter of 2021 was 5.9%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was 3.6% in the second quarter of 2021, with net purchases in the quarter amounting to €3 billion. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was 6.1%, with quarterly net purchases amounting to €35 billion. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 5.7%, 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 €6,855 billion in the second quarter of 2021, up from €6,798 billion in the first quarter of 2021 (see Annex, Table 1). Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 90.5% of total insurance technical reserves in the second quarter of 2021. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,493 billion, accounting for 24.1% of total life insurance technical reserves.

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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.