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In the third quarter of 2016, total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to € 7,878 billion. Insurance corporations’ holdings of debt securities amounted to 44% of total assets. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (23%), followed by loans (8%) and equity (9%).
Total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations amounted to €6,067 billion, with life insurance technical reserves representing 91%.
Total assets of euro area pension funds in the third quarter of 2016 increased to €2,446 billion from €2,402 billion in the previous quarter. Over the same period, the amount outstanding of pension entitlements, the main liabilities of pension funds, increased to €2,308 billion from €2,275 billion, owing partly to transactions amounting to €3 billion. Looking at the breakdown of assets on the aggregated balance sheet of euro area pension funds, holdings of investment fund shares accounted for 43% of the sector's total assets at end-September 2016. The second largest category of holdings was debt securities, which made up 25% of total assets, while equity accounted for 12%.
Turning to transactions in the main types of pension funds’ pension entitlements, transactions in defined benefit schemes amounted to €1 billion, in defined contribution schemes €2 billion and in hybrid schemes close to nil in the third quarter of 2016.
The enhanced insurance corporations dataset, which is largely derived from data reported under the European supervisory framework Solvency II, is now harmonised across the euro area. The dataset will initially only cover outstanding amounts.
Insurance corporation statistics