Archive:Insurance and pension funds statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1
This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived - for recent articles on structural business statistics see here.
- Data from January 2009. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article belongs to a set of statistical articles which analyse the structure, development and characteristics of the various economic activities in the European Union (EU). According to the statistical classification of economic activities in the EU (NACE Rev 1.1), the present article covers insurance and pension funds statistics, corresponding to NACE Division 66, which is part of the financial and insurance sector.
_(1).PNG)
.PNG)
.PNG)
_(1).PNG)
._Main_indicators,_2006_(1).PNG)
._Main_indicators,_2006_(1).PNG)
._Main_indicators,_2006_(1).PNG)
The activities covered in this article include:
- insurance fund services;
- pension fund services.
Compulsory social security services are excluded.
Main statistical findings
Employment
The number of persons employed in the EU-27's insurance and pension funding sector (NACE Division 66) was 1.2 million in 2007 according to Labour force survey data. This equated to 18.5 % of those employed in all financial and insurance services (NACE Section J). Germany dominated this sector in employment terms with 293.7 thousand persons employed, just less than one quarter (24.3 %) of the EU-27's workforce. France (17.4 %) and Spain (10.8 %) were the only other Member States with a double digit share of EU-27 employment. The most specialised Member States[1], in terms of this sector's contribution to business economy employment, were the Netherlands (1.7 %) and Luxembourg (1.5 %).
Insurance and reinsurance enterprises
In most Member States, the workforce of non-life insurance enterprises is larger than that of life insurance enterprises, often considerably so, as in Denmark and Cyprus. In contrast, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg reported larger life insurance workforces. Among the Member States with data available there was either no employment in composite insurance enterprises (the case in at least five Member States), or the level of employment was larger in composite insurance enterprises than in life and non-life insurance enterprises combined, with only occasional exceptions to this rule.
One measure often used to indicate the size of the insurance subsector is the value of gross premiums written (which may be viewed as a proxy for turnover that is used in the other structural business statistics sectors): it should be noted that no recent data is available for the United Kingdom or Germany which play a large role in insurance markets. Relative to population, the level of gross premiums written was highest in Luxembourg both for life and non-life insurance, followed by Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. Despite limited data availability, the importance of the reinsurance market in Luxembourg was clear.
The ratio of capital and reserves to gross premiums written varies greatly between Member States, particularly for life insurance enterprises where it was less than 20 % in Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary and Italy, yet reached 100 % or more in Sweden, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, as well as Iceland.
Pension funds
Official statistics on autonomous pension funds are relatively scarce. The information presented indicates that Hungary, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were among the Member States where this activity was most important, and Ireland (no recent data available) is also known to be particularly specialised in this activity.
Data sources and availability
The main part of the analysis in this article is derived from structural business statistics (SBS), including core, business statistics which are disseminated regularly, as well as information compiled on a multi-yearly basis, and the latest results from development projects.
Context
Financial and intermediation services provide instruments to businesses and households in the form of products that are essentially savings or loans, or products to transfer and pool risk. Changes in financing techniques have increased the possibilities open to business to fund investment, while consumers have a wider array of choices for credit, savings and payment methods. At the time of writing this sector is the focus of worldwide attention due to the financial crisis widely experienced across the globe and the impact that this has had on other parts of the economy. This crisis has led to national governments taking over some financial institutions, and providing massive amounts of financial support to others. The crisis has provoked widespread calls for reforms to regulatory bodies and new ways for overseeing the operations and practices of this sector.
There has been considerable EU legislative activity in the sphere of financial and insurance services centred upon the creation of an internal market for financial and insurance services. This work has been conducted through the Financial services action plan (FSAP), which was published by the European Commission in 1999 and the legislative phase completed in 2006.
The absence of cross-border consolidation within the financial and insurance services sector has drawn attention and in September 2007 a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council was adopted (COM (2007) 44) that would tighten the procedures that Member States' supervisory authorities have to follow when assessing proposed mergers and acquisitions in banking, insurance and securities activities. The directive aims to clarify the criteria against which supervisors should assess possible mergers and acquisitions in order to improve clarity and transparency in supervisory assessment and help to ensure a consistent handling of mergers and acquisitions requests across the EU.
In July 2007, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a directive on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II) which aims to change the way enterprises in these activities are regulated in terms of capital requirements and supervision. In February 2008, an amended proposal was adopted by the European Commission to take account of other legislative developments (COM(2008) 119).
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- European Business: Facts and figures - 2009 edition
Main tables
Database
Dedicated section
Other information
- Directive 2007/44 of 5 September 2007 on procedural rules and evaluation criteria for the prudential assessment of acquisitions and increase of holdings in the financial sector
- COM(2008) 119 of 26 February 2008 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II)
See also
- Exchange rates and interest rates
- Financial auxiliaries statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1
- Financial credit and leasing sector statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1
- Funds and asset management statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1
Notes
- ↑ Malta, not available