Insurance Corporations Statistics

Balance sheet (assets and liabilities) data for insurance corporations resident in Ireland (ESA 2010 sector S128). Insurance corporations consists of financial corporations that are principally engaged in financial intermediation as a consequence of the pooling of risks mainly in the form of direct insurance or reinsurance.

 Key Points - Q4 2023

 Publication date:  21 March 2024

• Total assets of the Irish insurance corporation (IC) sector increased by 0.3 per cent (€1.2 billion) during Q4 2023 to stand at €414 billion (Chart 1). Total assets are 6 per cent higher than Q4 2022. Equities and reinsurance technical reserves (TRs) experienced notable growth this quarter with holdings increasing by 12.5 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.
• Insurance technical reserve (ITRs) ¹ liabilities also increased in Q4 2023. Non unit linked life ITRs grew by 14.4 per cent, which may be a result of falling discount rates during the quarter (Chart 2). Conversely, non-life ITRs experienced a 15.4 per cent decline. Irish IC ITRs have grown across 2023, up 8 per cent on Q4 2022.
• Holdings of investment fund (IF) shares fell €7.7 billion (4.5 per cent) in Q4 2023. The largest IF holdings for the life subsector is in equity funds, while for reinsurers it is in bond funds. The largest IF holdings for the non-life subsector is in money market funds (MMFs), which may reflect the shorter term nature of non-life ITRs. Holdings of bond funds may be part of IC duration matching investment strategies, with investments chosen to correspond to the expected timing of their liabilities.

Summary Charts

Chart 1: Assets of Irish insurance corporations

Chart 2: Liabilities of Irish insurance corporations

Chart 3: Composition of Investment fund holdings by sub sector - Q4 2023

[1] In the insurance corporation context [insurance] technical reserves ([I]TRs) are liabilities relating to claims on (re)insurance corporations and assets relating to claims on reinsurance corporations.

Related Data Sets

Download the Insurance Corporation Statistics tables in CSV format.