Press Releases

Statistics on Insurance Corporations: March 2020

03/06/2020 - Press Releases

Statistics on Insurance Corporations[1]: March 2020

In the first quarter of 2020, total assets of insurance corporations decreased to €18,416 million from €18,882 million in the previous quarter.

In further detail, the overall deposits of insurance corporations increased by €10 million to €1,233 million in the first quarter of 2020. Deposits with domestic credit institutions decreased by €43 million, while deposits with foreign credit institutions increased by €52 million. Deposits accounted for 6.7% of total assets in the first quarter of 2020 compared with 6.5% in the previous quarter.

Total holdings of debt securities decreased to €11,756 million in the first quarter of 2020 from €11,822 million in the previous quarter; their reduced value is due to the decrease in foreign debt security prices and net sales of domestic securities, which were partially counterbalanced by purchases of foreign securities. Debt securities increased to 63.8% of total assets at end-March 2020 from 62.6% in the previous quarter.

Total holdings of investment fund shares decreased to €2,573 million from €2,977 million in the previous quarter. Their share in total assets decreased to 14.0% at the end of the first quarter of 2020 from 15.8% in the previous quarter. The reduced value of the total holdings is due both to net sales and declining prices of investment fund shares.

Total holdings of shares and other equity, excluding mutual funds shares, decreased to €563 million in the first quarter of 2020 compared with €639 million in the previous quarter, while their respective share in total assets decreased to 3.1% from 3.4% in the previous quarter.

On the liabilities side, own funds decreased by €304 million to €2,876 million at end-March 2020. Total insurance technical reserves decreased by €101 million to €13,920 million, mainly due to the decrease in life technical reserves by €100 million. Νon-life insurance technical reserves remained almost unchanged at €3,089 million. Life technical reserves (other than pension entitlements) accounted for 71% of total technical reserves.

 

Table 1: Balance Sheet of Insurance Corporations (EUR millions at the end of the period)

 

	Q4 2019	Q1 2020
Assets
Deposits	1,223	1,233
Domestic	888	845
Foreign	335	387
Debt Securities	11,822	11,756
Domestic	5,396	5,258
Foreign	6,426	6,497
Investment Fund Shares	2,977	2,573
Domestic	928	779
Foreign	2,049	1,794
Shares and other equity excluding investment fund shares	639	563
Domestic	458	404
Foreign	181	159
Fixed assets (net of depreciation)	671	691
Financial Derivatives	3	3
Loans	166	164
Prepayments of insurance premiums	435	417
Other Assets	947	1,016
Total Assets / Liabilities	18,882	18,416
Liabilities
Own Funds	3,180	2,876
Insurance technical reserves	14,021	13,920
Life insurance technical reserves	10,931	10,831
of which Pension entitlements	842	950
Non-Life insurance technical reserves	3,090	3,089
Loans	138	132
Other liabilities	1,542	1,487

 

 

Table 2: Net flows[2] of investments of Insurance Corporations (EUR millions)

 

Investments	Q4 2019	Q1 2020
Debt Securities	191	113
Domestic	73	-116
Foreign	119	230
Investment fund shares	-17	-133
Domestic	-16	-40
Foreign	0	-93
Shares and other equity excluding investment fund shares	12	-22
Domestic	0	-14
Foreign	12	-8

 

Chart 1

Chart 2

 

The complete data set of insurance corporations is published on the Bank of Greece website and can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.bankofgreece.gr/en/statistics/non-monetary-financial-institutions/aggregated-balance-sheet-of-insurance-corporations

Note: The next Press Release on “Statistics on Insurance Corporations” for the second quarter of 2020 will be published on 31 August 2020, according to the Advance release calendar, as published on the Bank of Greece website.