Press Releases

Statistics on Insurance Corporations: December 2019

03/03/2020 - Press Releases

Statistics on Insurance Corporations [1] - December 2019  

In further detail, the overall deposits of insurance corporations decreased by €130 million to €1,223 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Deposits with domestic credit institutions decreased by €59 million, while deposits with foreign credit institutions decreased by €71 million. Deposits accounted for 6.5% of total assets in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with 7.1% in the previous quarter.

Total holdings of debt securities amounted to €11,822 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 from €11,820 million in the previous quarter, as the net purchases of securities were offset by a reduction in their prices. Debt securities amounted to 62.6% of total assets at end-December 2019 from 62.4% in the previous quarter.

Total holdings of investment fund shares increased to €2,977 million from €2,959 million in the previous quarter. Investment fund shares accounted for 15.8% of total assets at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019 from 15.6% in the previous quarter. The increase in the value of the total holdings is due to the increase in the prices of foreign investment fund shares.

Total holdings of shares and other equity, excluding mutual funds shares, increased to €639 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with €597 million in the previous quarter and accounted for 3.4% of total assets from 3.2% in the previous quarter.

On the liabilities side, own funds increased by €47 million to €3,180 million at end-December 2019. Total insurance technical reserves decreased by €107 million to €14,021 million, mainly due to the decrease of life technical reserves by €88 million. Νon-life insurance technical reserves decreased by €19 million from the previous quarter to €3,090 million. Life technical reserves (other than pension entitlements) accounted for 72% of total technical reserves.

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

	Q3 2019	Q4 2019
Assets
Deposits	1,353	1,223
Domestic	947	888
Foreign	406	335
Debt Securities	11,820	11,822
Domestic	5,362	5,396
Foreign	6,458	6,426
Investment Fund Shares	2,959	2,977
Domestic	936	928
Foreign	2,024	2,049
Shares and other equity excluding investment fund shares	597	639
Domestic	437	458
Foreign	159	181
Fixed assets (net of depreciation)	646	671
Financial Derivatives	3	3
Loans	176	166
Prepayments of insurance premiums	434	435
Other Assets	965	947
Total Assets / Liabilities	18,952	18,882
Liabilities
Own Funds	3,133	3,180
Insurance technical reserves	14,128	14,021
Life insurance technical reserves	11,019	10,931
of which Pension entitlements	845	842
Non-Life insurance technical reserves	3,109	3,090
Loans	142	138
Other liabilities	1,550	1,542

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

Investments	Q3 2019	Q4 2019
Debt Securities	169	191
Domestic	220	73
Foreign	-52	119
Investment fund shares	-88	-17
Domestic	-46	-16
Foreign	-42	0
Shares and other equity excluding investment fund shares	9	12
Domestic	-6	0
Foreign	15	12

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:

http://www.bankofgreece.gr/Pages/en/Statistics/nomonetary/default.aspx

Note: The next Press Release on “Statistics on Insurance Corporations” for the first quarter of 2020 will be published on 5 June 2020, according to the Advance release calendar, as published on the Bank of Greece website.

[1] Data to the Bank of Greece are submitted by the supervised insurance corporations as defined in article 1 of the Executive Committee Act 94/16.5.2016 concerning the single submission of national reports by insurance and reinsurance corporations to the Bank of Greece in the context of Solvency II for supervisory and statistical purposes. 

[2] Net flows are derived from the change in the outstanding amounts of stocks corrected for revaluation and reclassification adjustments.