The financial investments of insurers fell by 438 billion euros last year, the Banque de France said on Tuesday, mainly due to the increase in central bank key rates.
at the end of December, the outstanding financial investments of insurers stood at 2,369 billion euros, down sharply (…) over the year 2022, underlines the central bank in a quarterly publication on the sector. This reduction is of the order of 15%.
It is life insurance that concentrates most of the investments and the loss of value: -419 billion euros last year for 2108 billion euros in assets at the end of December.
In question, the fall in the prices of assets held by insurers, made less attractive by the rise in key rates that began in the middle of last year and is intended above all to counter inflation.
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An ocean liner tacking very slowly
Like bankers and asset managers, insurers currently have to manage a critical moment which allows them to invest in new, more profitable bonds but which reduces the market value of their older bonds, which have become difficult to resell if necessary.
Like an ocean liner turning very slowly, it takes several years to renew the stock with more recent bonds offering a better return.
The maturing of the bonds held will enable them to achieve this objective, as will new deposits in euro funds. But the latter are currently not favored by savers.
Net flows on these supports have been negative since the beginning of the year, by more than 4 billion euros, according to the latest data made available by the professional federation France insurers.
Their yields (2% on average for euro life insurance funds, according to calculations by the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority, excluding tax) are far from competing with those of regulated savings, led by Livret A ( 3% net of tax since February 1).
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