Insurance Corporations Statistics – Q4 2020

Publication date: 10 March 2021 

Key Points

• Total assets rose by €16.5 billion during Q4 2020, to stand at €380 billion. This is the highest level of total assets in the series to date. Equity, bond and mixed investment fund (IF) shares were the largest drivers of this, responsible for €11 billion of the increase collectively.

• Unit linked life insurance technical reserves grew by €15 billion over the quarter, accounting for 95% of the increase in the liabilities of insurance corporation (ICs).

• Over the course of the year, holdings in debt securities have seen an increase of €1 billion. Non-financial corporation (NFC) and other financial intermediary (OFI) issued debt securities were the largest drivers.

Summary Charts

Chart 1: After declining in Q1 2020, Insurance Technical Reserves (*ITRs) continued their 2019 positive trend across the remainder of 2020.

Chart 2: Debt security holdings issued by NFCs and OFIs saw the most significant increases across the year, beyond their pre-pandemic levels.

*Other includes pension funds and insurance corporations

Chart 3: Price changes are responsible for most of the fluctuation in the value of investment funds holdings of Irish ICs since Q4 2019.

*ITRs are a liability on the balance sheet of an insurance corporation (IC). They are the funds an IC holds in reserve to cover their estimated claims. These are different to the asset insurance technical reserves and related claims.

Note: This statistical release references outstanding amounts for assets and liabilities of Insurance Corporations resident in Ireland.

Related Data Sets

Download the Insurance Corporation Statistics tables in CSV format.