Euro area pension fund statistics: fourth quarter of 2022

16 March 2023

• Total assets of euro area pension funds amounted to €3,123 billion in fourth quarter of 2022, €156 billion higher than in third quarter of 2022
• Total pension entitlements of euro area pension funds rose to €2,538 billion in fourth quarter of 2022, up €246 billion from third quarter of 2022

Total assets of euro area pension funds increased to €3,123 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, from €2,967 billion in the third quarter of 2022. The increase in total assets in the fourth quarter of 2022 was driven mainly by the transfer of assets from insurance corporations to recently established pension funds in France. Investment fund shares accounted for 40.8% of the pension funds sector's total assets in the fourth quarter of 2022. The second largest category of holdings was debt securities (27.0%), followed by equity (11.5%) (see respective transactions in Chart 1).

Holdings of investment fund shares decreased to €1,275 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 from €1,329 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of investment fund shares amounted to €43 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, while price and other changes amounted to -€11 billion. The net sales of investment fund shares and the net purchases of equities in the fourth quarter of 2022 were mainly accounted for by Dutch pension funds redeeming equity funds and investing the related proceeds in equity instruments.

Turning to pension funds' holdings of debt securities, these increased to €843 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022 from €764 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of debt securities amounted to €95 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, while price and other changes amounted to -€16 billion. Looking at equity on the assets side, euro area pension funds' holdings increased to €360 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, from €267 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of equity stood at €89 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, while price and other changes stood at €4 billion.

Chart 1

Transactions in main assets of euro area pension funds in the fourth quarter of 2022

(quarterly transactions in EUR billions; not seasonally adjusted)

In terms of the main liabilities, total pension entitlements of pension funds amounted to €2,538 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, up from €2,292 billion in the third quarter of 2022. Defined benefit pension schemes amounted to €1,908 billion, accounting for 75.2% of total pension entitlements. Defined contribution pension schemes totalled €630 billion, accounting for 24.8% of total pension entitlements in the fourth quarter of 2022. Net purchases of defined benefit schemes amounted to €30 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, while those of defined contribution schemes came to €107 billion. Price and other changes of total pension entitlements amounted to €110 billion.

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Notes:

• "Defined benefit schemes" includes hybrid schemes.
• "Investment funds" includes money market funds and non-money market funds.
• The transfer of assets from the insurance sector to the pension fund sector in France is related to the implementation of the Sapin II Law.
• Hyperlinks in the main body of the statistical release and in the annex table lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions. Figures shown in the annex table are a snapshot of the data as at the time of the current release.