Definition: A financial risk management tool in which the insured transfers a risk of potential financial loss to the insurance company that mitigates it in exchange for monetary compensation known as the premium.
Description: Insurance policies, a contract between the policyholder and the insurance company, are of different types depending on the risk they mitigate. Broad categories include life, health, motor, travel, home, rural, commercial and business insurance.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, an agency of the Government of India, is the regulatory body for the insurance sector’s supervision and development in India.
- sheet
- The balance sheet section presents the assets and liabilities data for reinsurance, life, non-life and composite insurance corporations, as well as more detailed data for the insurance corporation population as a whole (“total insurance corporations”).
The asset section provides information on the holdings of insurance corporations: it shows the investments of the paid premiums and other liabilities, as well as loans provided. It also shows the claims that insurance corporations might have against other parties – for example claims against reinsurance firms resulting from reinsurance contracts.
The liabilities section provides information on claims against euro area insurance corporations. These liabilities mainly consist of the funds (“insurance technical reserves”) that insurance corporations have put aside to fulfil their future payment obligations towards policyholders. Liabilities also include insurance corporations’ equity, loans received and other financial obligations. - premiums, claims and acquisition expenses
- The premiums, claims and acquisition expenses section presents financial data that is closely related to the insurance policies. Premiums refer to the payments policyholders regularly transfer to the insurance corporation in order to be covered in the event of losses. Claims incurred, or simply claims, are the financial obligations arising from both insurance and reinsurance. Acquisition expenses relate to the costs an insurance corporation incurs when issuing new contracts.
- large insurance groups
- The large insurance groups section contains data collected from approximately 90 insurance groups operating in the European Economic Area (EEA) under the Solvency II regime. These data consist of indicators and growth ratios that the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) compiles for the purpose of monitoring financial stability.
Harmonised euro area insurance corporation (IC) statistics are available as of the third quarter of 2016. They replace the non-harmonised IC statistics that were previously published by the ECB as part of a broader euro area insurance corporation and pension fund (ICPF) statistical dataset. ICPF statistics are available for the reference periods from the first quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2016 on the Statistical Data Warehouse.
Data and reporting
For detailed information on the available insurance corporations data series and the relevant reporting framework, see Data and reporting.