Insurance Risk Dashboard
EIOPA-BoS-26-170
April 2026
The Insurance Risk Dashboard, based on Solvency II data, summarises the main risks and vulnerabilities in the European Union’s insurance sector through a set of risk indicators. The data is based on financial stability and prudential reporting collected from insurance groups and solo insurance undertakings.
April 2026 Insurance Risk Dashboard
The reference date for company data is Q4-2025 for quarterly indicators and 2024-YE for annual indicators. The cut-off date for most market indicators is the end of March 2026. The Level (color) corresponds to the level of risk as of the reference date, the Trend is displayed for the 3 months preceding the reference date and the Outlook is displayed for the 12 months after the reference date. The latter is based on the responses received from 23 national competent authorities (NCAs) and ranked according to the expected change in the materiality of each risk (substantial decrease, decrease, unchanged, increase and substantial increase).
Key Observations
Macro Risks
Macroeconomic risks remain stable at a medium level, with increasing outlook. While GDP growth projections across major geographical regions remained unchanged around 1.3% for the next four quarters, global inflation forecasts increased from 1.9% to 2.3%. The weighted average of 10-year swap rates for key currencies slightly increased relative to the prior quarter (from 3.1% to 3.2%).In parallel, monetary policy remained broadly stable in Q1-2026. Last available data on fiscal balances for major economies point to -3.6% of gdp in Q3 2025, while the credit-to-GDP gap slightly reduced back to to -18.2% in Q3-2025. Unemployment rates hover around 5.7% based on the most recent data from Q4 2025. Additional sources of concern continue to persist in the geopolitical picture.
Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.
Source: Refinitiv
Source: Refinitiv
Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.
Source: Refinitiv
Source: BIS
Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.
Credit Risks
Credit risks remain steady at a medium level, amid foreseen increase in public spending in defense and infrastructure. As of end of March 2026, credit default swap (CDS) spreads increased sightly. In Q4 2025, insurers’ median exposures to government and financial secured bonds remained broadly unchanged, while their exposures to non-financial and financial unsecured bonds increased. As of Q4 2025, insurers’ median investment allocations as a share of total assets stood at approximately 26.1% in government bonds, at 1.3% in financial secured bonds and increased to 9.6% in financial unsecured bonds and to 8.7% from 10.4% in non-financial bonds. The indicator on fundamental credit risk in the non-financial corporate sector was broadly unchanged. Insurers’ exposure to mortgages and loans remained around 0.3% in Q4-2025 and the household debt-to-income ratio in the Euro area declined slightly to 82.4%, based on Q3 2025 data. Overall, the credit quality of insurers’ investments remains high, with the median credit quality step (CQS) around 2, equivalent to an AA rating from S&P. The median share of low-rated investments (CQS > 3) was around at 1.3% in Q4 2025.
Source: Refinitiv, QFG
Source: Refinitiv, QFG
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Source: QFG, ECB
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Source: BIS
Market Risks
Market risks remain elevated, with increasing outlook. Bond market volatility increased compared to previous assessment, remaining at a level that still requires attention, as well as equity volatility while price to book ratio remained unchanged by the end of March 2026. Insurers’ median exposure to bonds are at 50.7% and to equities at 6% of total assets in Q4 2025. Residential property prices kept increasing according to latest data. Insurers’ median investments to property remains limited overall, with a median of 3% of total assets in Q4-2025. Asset concentration measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index is stable.
Source: QFG
Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P., QFG
Source: QFG, ECB
Source: ARS
Source: QFG
Source: Assets: QFG, Liabilities: AFG
Liquidity & Funding
Liquidity and funding risks remained at medium level . In Q4 2025, insurers’ median cash holdings are around 0.7% of total assets and the median liquid asset was unchanged at 46% of total assets. Lapse rate decreased in 2025. In the catastrophe bond market, the issuance volumes was higher inQ4 2025 compared to Q4 2024 while bond issuance remained low. All other annual indicators remained unchanged.
Source: QRS
Source: QRS
Source: QFG
Source: ARS
Source: ARS
Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.
Profitability & solvency
Solvency and profitability risks remain stable at a medium level. In Q4 2025, the median solvency ratios slightly increased for insurance groups (to 220%), for life (to 244%) and for non-life (to 219%). The median of Tier 1 own funds to total own funds median slightly increased to 87%. In terms of profitability, the median non-life combined ratio remained broadly unchaged around 94.8% in Q4-2025. Return of excess of assets decreased while the return on assets and return to premium increased in Q4-2025.
Source: QRS
Source: ARS
Source: QFG
Source: QFG and ARG
Source: QFG and ARG
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Source: QRS
Source: QRS
Source: ARS
Source: QFG
Source: QRS
Interlinkages & imbalances
Interlinkages and imbalances risks remained stable at a medium level. Insurers’ median exposure to banks remained at 14.2% , to other financial activities at 23.1% of total assets, and to other insurers at 1.8% . Insurers’ median exposure to domestic sovereign debt and derivatives also held steady at around 7.4% and 0.2% of total assets, respectively. The median share of premiums ceded to reinsurers slightly decreased to 4.6% in Q4 2025.
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Source: QRS
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Insurance Risks
Insurance risks is at medium level. Year-on-year premium growth for life was strong at 6.6%, which is associated with a lower level of risks. Year-on-year premium growth for non-life business also remained strong, at 4.6%. The median of the loss ratio was at 61% in Q4 2025. Uncertainty stemming from potential claims against war and trade related coverages remains.
Source: QFG
Source: QFG
Source: QRS
Market perceptions
Market perceptions remain at a medium level. Life and non-life insurance stocks underperformed the market over the last three months. The median price-to-earnings ratio for insurance groups slightly decreased in the same period. The distribution of insurers’ CDS spreads increased, while there were three positive changes in external rating outlooks for insurance groups in the sample.
Source: Refinitiv
Source: Refinitiv
Source: Refinitiv
Digitalisation & cyber risks
Digitalization and cyber risks remain at a medium level. The materiality of these risks for the insurance sector, as assessed by supervisors, remain elevated in Q1 2026. Cyber negative sentiment decreased in first quarter and global cyber attacks indicators decreased at the end of 2025. In the current geopolitical context, cyber threats remain significant concern as insurers are not only exposed to operational risks but also face the growing challenge of underwriting cyber risks, which adds complexity to their risk management strategies.
Source: EIOPA’s Insurance Bottom-up Survey.
Note: Text analysis based indicator, calculated from earning calls
transcripts from listed insurers.
Source: Refinitiv, EIOPA
calculations.
Note: Number of publicly disclosed global cyber attacks over time and
changes.
Source: University of Maryland CISSM Cyber Events Database,
EIOPA calculations.
APPENDIX
Arrows for the Trend show changes for the 3 months preceding the reference date, while arrows for the Outlook show expected developments for the next 12 months.
Macro risks
This category depicts developments in the macro-economic environment that could impact the insurance sector. This category is based on publicly available data on macro variables that may be used for broader macroprudential monitoring and analysis.
Credit risks
The category assesses the vulnerability of the insurance sector towards credit risks. To achieve this aim, credit-relevant asset class exposures of the insurers are combined with the relevant risk metrics applicable to these asset classes.
Market & asset return risks
The risk category depicts the main risks insurers are exposed to on financial markets and the level of asset returns and costs (e.g. administrative, investments and other). For most asset classes these risks are being assessed by analysing both the investment exposure of the insurance sector and an underlying risk metric. The exposures give a picture of the vulnerability of the sector to adverse developments; the risk metric, usually the volatility of the yields of the associated indices, gives a picture of the current level of riskiness.
Liquidity & funding risks
This category aims at assessing the vulnerability of the European insurance industry to liquidity shocks. The set of indicators encompasses the lapse rate of the life insurance sector with high lapse rate signaling a potential risk, holdings of cash & cash equivalents as a measure of the liquidity buffer available, and the issuance of catastrophe bonds, where a very low volume of issuance and/or high spreads signals a reduction in demand which could form a risk.
Profitability & solvency
The category scrutinizes the level of solvency and profitability of the European insurance industry. Both dimensions are analyzed for the overall industry (using group data) and include a breakdown for the life and non-life companies (using solo data). In detail, the solvency level is measured via solvency ratios and quality of own funds. Standard profitability measures for the whole industry are complemented by indicators such as the combined ratio and the return on investments specifically applied to the non-life and life industry respectively.
Interlinkages & imbalances
Under this section various kinds of interlinkages are assessed, both within the insurance sector, namely between primary insurers and reinsurers, between the insurance sector and the banking sector, as well as interlinkages created via derivative holdings. Exposure towards domestic sovereign debt is included as well.
Insurance (underwriting) risks
As indicators for insurance risks gross written premiums of both life and non-life business are an important input. Both significant expansion and contraction are taken as indicators of risks in the sector; the former due to concerns over sustainability and the latter as an indicator of widespread contraction of insurance markets.
Market perceptions
This category encompasses the financial markets’ perception of the healthiness and profitability of the European insurance sector. For this purpose, relative stock market performances of European insurance indices against the total market are assessed, as well as fundamental valuations of insurance stocks (price/earnings ratio), CDS spreads and external ratings/rating outlooks.
Digitalisation & cyber risks
This risk category aims to capture potential financial stability
risks related to an increased digitalisation, which exposes the
insurance sector to risks both from an operational resilience
perspective (as insurers themselves can be targets of cyber-attacks) and
from an underwriting perspective (related to the provision of cyber
insurance products). The set of indicators encompasses the supervisors’
assessment of digitalization & cyber risks considering different
aspects such as cyber security risks, cyber underwriting risks and
Insurtech competition, the year-on–year change in the frequency of cyber
incidents as reported in the Hackmageddon.com database and, finally, the
negative sentiment of European insurers against cyber risk. This section
will be further developed as new data becomes available.
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