Financial assets of insurance corporations - France - 2024-Q4
Published on the 9th of April 2025
Outstanding investments held by insurers and pension funds relatively stable in the fourth quarter of 2024.
As of end-December 2024, the outstanding amount of financial investments held by insurers and pension funds stood at €2,721 billion, down by €10 billion compared to the previous quarter.
This decrease is mainly due to the decreasing of the asset valuation for insurers (- €6.9 billion) and pension funds (- €0.9 billion), primarily affecting debt securities (- €8 billion), in connection with the rise in French long-term interest rates (+ 40 basis points in the 10-year OAT during Q4 2024).
Before look-through of French collective investment undertaking, insurers and pension funds favored purchases of long-term debt securities (+ €16 billion) and non-money market fund shares (+ €10 billion). Conversely, they reduced their positions in money market funds shares (- €21 billion in net flows).
After look-through (see page 2), they hold a majority of securities issued by the financial sector excluding collective investment undertaking (38%, including 16% from monetary financial institutions and 22% from other financial corporations), by general government (22%), and by non-financial corporations (23%).
The look-through portfolio of insurers and pension funds is composed of 64% debt securities, 19% equities, and 16% shares in non-look-through collective investment undertaking, mostly foreign. It consists of 40% securities issued in France, 42% issued abroad, and 16% unallocated collective investment undertaking shares.
This decrease is mainly due to the decreasing of the asset valuation for insurers (- €6.9 billion) and pension funds (- €0.9 billion), primarily affecting debt securities (- €8 billion), in connection with the rise in French long-term interest rates (+ 40 basis points in the 10-year OAT during Q4 2024).
Before look-through of French collective investment undertaking, insurers and pension funds favored purchases of long-term debt securities (+ €16 billion) and non-money market fund shares (+ €10 billion). Conversely, they reduced their positions in money market funds shares (- €21 billion in net flows).
After look-through (see page 2), they hold a majority of securities issued by the financial sector excluding collective investment undertaking (38%, including 16% from monetary financial institutions and 22% from other financial corporations), by general government (22%), and by non-financial corporations (23%).
The look-through portfolio of insurers and pension funds is composed of 64% debt securities, 19% equities, and 16% shares in non-look-through collective investment undertaking, mostly foreign. It consists of 40% securities issued in France, 42% issued abroad, and 16% unallocated collective investment undertaking shares.
(EUR billion, outstanding amounts at market prices at end of period, transactions, valuation effects during period)
| Life and composite IC | Non-Life IC | Pension funds | |||||||
| Net flows | Valuations | Stocks | Net flows | Valuations | Stocks | Net flows | Valuations | Stocks | |
| Currency and depositis | -3.7 | 0.0 | 31.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 13.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.8 |
| Debt securities | 12.5 | -6.3 | 1,162.6 | 2.2 | -0.8 | 120.4 | 0.7 | -0.9 | 103.3 |
| < ou= 1 year (original maturity) | -0.9 | 0.1 | 20.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| >1 year (original maturity) | 13.4 | -6.4 | 1,142.1 | 2.2 | -0.8 | 120.0 | 0.7 | -0.9 | 103.3 |
| Loans | -4.2 | 0.0 | 57.3 | -0.2 | 0.0 | 14.7 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.1 |
| Equity | 1.1 | -1.9 | 184.9 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 87.2 | 0.4 | -0.2 | 14.0 |
| Listed shares | -0.2 | -1.4 | 64.8 | -0.5 | -0.2 | 14.9 | 0.1 | -0.1 | 6.3 |
| Unlisted shares | 0.6 | 0.0 | 70.1 | 0.5 | -0.2 | 40.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 2.8 |
| Others shares | 0.7 | -0.5 | 50.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 31.9 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 4.9 |
| Investment fund shares | -10.0 | 1.9 | 807.1 | -2.2 | 0.0 | 44.2 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 68.4 |
| Money market funds | -18.6 | 0.6 | 80.5 | -2.2 | 0.0 | 7.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 4.1 |
| Non money market funds | 8.6 | 1.3 | 726.6 | 0.0 | -0.1 | 37.1 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 64.3 |
| ow equity funds | 2.6 | 1.1 | 243.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 7.6 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 20.8 |
| ow fixed income funds | 2.9 | 0.3 | 148.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 9.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 8.6 |
| ox mixed funds | 1.6 | 1.2 | 186.1 | -0.1 | 0.1 | 8.9 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 25.0 |
| Financial derivatives | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -0.8 |
| Total | -4.3 | -6.4 | 2,247.8 | 0.1 | -0.5 | 280.5 | 2.8 | -0.9 | 192.8 |
Within equities, other equity investments include share equivalents that cannot be traded on a regulated market
Security portfolio transactions (1) of insurance corporations and pension funds (in billions of euros) in 2024 Q4
By category of issuers (2)
By geographical area
1 Debt securities, equities and investment fund shares
2 "Unallocated" is composed of bonds and equities issued outside the euro area.
2 "Unallocated" is composed of bonds and equities issued outside the euro area.
Breakdown of outstanding amounts of security portfolio after looking through UCIs
By category of issuers![]()
By geographical area![]()
By type of securities
The look-through approach consists, when the information is available, in replacing the French mutual funds shares in the insurance portfolios by the final investments of mutual funds. The 16% residual amount correspond to these mutual funds shares (mainly foreign) which cannot be allocated with this approach. After a look-through approach, the share of equities increases by + 8 percentage points (11% to 19%) and the one of debt securities by + 11 percentage points (53% to 64%).
Date of next publication : 9th July 2025
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Updated on the 14th of April 2025