Currency and deposit assets of German life insurers
Currency and deposit assets of German life insurers stood at 83,919 EUR million in Q2 2026, according to Deutsche Bundesbank. It is one of the indicators in the Insurance corporation balance sheets table (Value · Quarterly), with a complete series running from Q3 2016 to Q2 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Insurance corporation balance sheets table
| Indicator | Q2-2026 | Q1-2026 | Q4-2025 | Q3-2025 | Q2-2025 | Q1-2025 | Q4-2024 | Q3-2024 | Q2-2024 | Q1-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets and liabilities | 1,235,679 | 1,191,079 | 1,198,616 | 1,201,329 | 1,191,292 | 1,182,732 | 1,207,393 | 1,207,715 | 1,182,260 | 1,193,759 | |
| Assets | |||||||||||
| Currency and deposits | 83,919 | 83,523 | 85,105 | 89,846 | 91,799 | 90,594 | 94,129 | 96,186 | 95,460 | 98,549 |
Understanding currency and deposit assets of German life insurers
Immediate transactional liquidity and short-term bank balances held by domestic life insurance corporations are recorded in this asset category. The data encompass currency held in vaults, overnight bank accounts, and fixed-term cash deposits placed with credit institutions. Sibling asset rows encompassing debt securities, equity stakes, collective investment units, mortgage loans, and property holdings are excluded. Because life insurance companies predominantly invest in long-duration fixed-income instruments and investment funds to back long-term policyholder commitments, bank deposits represent a modest liquidity buffer. These holdings are maintained to settle regular pension and annuity distributions, accommodate policy surrenders, fund collateral margin calls, and facilitate routine operating expenditures.
Cash management among life insurers reflects the interplay between scheduled policyholder payments and ongoing asset redeployment. Twelve-month comparisons provide a cleaner view by bypassing seasonal concentrations in premium collection schedules, annual policyholder bonus payouts, and contract expirations. Sequential changes from one reporting period to the next primarily reveal tactical liquidity accumulation ahead of planned bond purchases, or temporary drawdowns to meet surrender and annuity requests. Initial estimates undergo revision once full institutional balance sheet submissions are processed. Users should remember that money market fund participations and short-term debt paper are excluded from this line and recorded under investment funds and debt securities.
Frequently asked questions
- Why do life insurance companies hold only a small fraction of their assets in deposits?
- Life insurers face long-term contractual commitments and therefore allocate most assets into duration-matched securities like bonds and investment funds. Deposits serve only as a working liquidity reserve for near-term operational needs.
- Are policy loans to life insurance customers recorded under this deposit line?
- Policy loans are excluded from currency and deposits, as they are treated as credit advances and classified under the loans asset category.
- Do money market fund participations count toward this cash and deposit measure?
- Money market funds are categorized as investment fund shares rather than direct bank deposits. Only currency held in hand and non-negotiable bank deposits are reported here.