Total assets of euro area insurance corporations increased to €7,845 billion in the third quarter of 2017, from €7,801 billion in the previous quarter.
Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations increased to €5,924 billion, from €5,901 billion.
Total assets of euro area insurance corporations increased to €7,845 billion in the third quarter of 2017, from €7,801 billion in the previous quarter. Total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations were €5,924 billion in the third quarter, up from €5,901 billion in the second. Life insurance technical reserves represented 90.8% of total insurance technical reserves in the third quarter. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,127 billion and accounted for 19.0% of total life insurance technical reserves.
In terms of assets, euro area insurance corporations' holdings of debt securities decreased marginally to €3,311 billion in the third quarter of 2017, from €3,313 billion in the previous quarter. In the same period net purchases of debt securities totalled €1 billion and were offset by €3 billion in price and other changes. Total debt securities amounted to 42.2% of the sector's total assets in the third quarter of 2017. The year-on-year growth rate in debt securities held was -1.0% in the third quarter of 2017.
Looking at holdings by issuing sector, debt securities issued by general government in the euro area amounted to €1,544 billion and represented 46.7% of total debt securities held. The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities issued by general government was -0.1% in the third quarter of 2017. The majority of euro area government bonds held were issued in the country in which the insurance corporation is located. These amounted to a total of €1,050 billion, compared with only €494 billion of investments in other euro area countries' debt securities. Debt securities issued by euro area monetary financial institutions (MFIs) totalled €453 billion or 13.7% of total debt securities held.
The second-largest category of holdings (25.6%) was investment fund shares including money market fund shares. These holdings increased to €2,005 billion in the third quarter of 2017, from €1,968 billion in the previous quarter, with transactions of €29 billion supplemented by price and other changes of €9 billion. The year-on-year growth rate in the third quarter was 9.3%.
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Note:
Further predefined tables, statistical data at a quarterly frequency and the advance release calendar are available in the statistics section of the ECB's website under Insurance corporations statistics.
