Private assets hit €1.185tn, sharpening European insurer balance-sheet scrutiny

Private assets accounted for €1.185 trillion, or around 11%, of European Economic Area insurers’ and reinsurers’ total assets at the end of 2025, according to a factsheet published today by EIOPA on private credit and private equity exposures. EIOPA reported private credit at about 5.0% of total assets and private equity at 6.3%, putting the two asset classes at a similar scale across the sector, even though their use differs by business model.

The factsheet adds detail to EIOPA’s regular insurance statistics on private credit and private equity exposures, including breakdowns by asset type, issuance country and line of business. This makes the data more granular than a headline allocation measure, because it separates the type of private asset from where it was issued and which insurance activity holds it.

Life insurers have a greater tilt towards private credit, while reinsurance, non-life insurance and composite businesses show higher investment in private equity. That distinction matters because the aggregate private-assets number masks different balance-sheet uses across the sector.

Unit-linked business has only limited exposure to private assets overall, according to EIOPA. The lower exposure in that segment contrasts with the higher use of private credit and private equity elsewhere in insurers’ general account and underwriting-related businesses.

EIOPA said allocations to private assets are attracting increasing attention and described the factsheet as a basis for further analysis and discussion. The publication gives supervisors and market participants a common dataset for assessing where private credit and private equity sit within EEA insurers’ asset base.

--- Sources: https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/eiopa-publishes-factsheet-european-reinsurers-exposures-private-credit-and-private-equity _en