Back to Top

 Skip navigation

Financial and Insurance Activities Sector

Open in Excel:

Statistics on the Financial and Insurance Activities sector (NACE K) are presented in this chapter. The statistics were not collected via the Structural Business Surveys mentioned throughout this publication, but were collected and analysed by the CSO's Balance of Payments Division who engage directly with the Financial and Insurance Activities sector and its regulators on the provision of these statistics. 

The Financial and Insurances Activities sector has traditionally used different terms to describe variables like production value, gross value added and operating surplus. As part of a broad legislative proposal, agreed EU definitions for the Financial and Insurance Activities sector are currently being developed and should be in use in the coming years. The objective behind producing these statistics is to complete the coverage of the Business Economy in Ireland and to allow meaningful comparisons with other business sectors such as Industry and Services.

The Financial and Insurance Activities sector is described by NACE Section K. It includes:

K64 - Financial Services Activities, except Insurance and Pension Funding is dominated by credit institutions which in Ireland are banks and credit unions. However, it also includes activities of holding companies, obtaining and redistributing funds other than for the purpose of insurance, pension funding or compulsory social security among other financial services activities.

K65 - Insurance, Reinsurance and Pension Funding includes life insurance companies, non-life insurance companies and reinsurance companies as well as pension funds. This group includes underwriting annuities, insurance policies and investing premiums to increase the portfolio of financial assets.

K66 - Activities Auxiliary to Financial Services and Insurance Activities is the most diverse category and includes all financial auxiliaries including brokerage firms, insurance agents and fund management activities. These services are closely related to financial service activities but are not themselves providing financial services.

The business operations data presented for the Financial and Insurance Activities sector in this report covers banks, life insurance, non-life insurance and reinsurance. The detailed calculations of the main indicators for these enterprises are presented here. The calculations are based on the accounting framework where the income and expenses for the reference year 2019 are analysed in detail. See Tables 8.1 and 8.2.

Interest payable
linked to securities
Interest payable
linked to loans and deposits
Interest receivable
from securities
Interest receivable
from loans and deposits
2017-0.5-2.21.56.7
2018-0.5-2.61.27.4
2019-0.5-3.90.89.6
  • Interest received increased by 6.2% over the period 2017–2018 and by 19.4% between 2018 and 2019
  • Interest payable and similar charges increased by 12.0% over the period 2017-2018 and by 44.5% between 2018 and 2019
  • Net interest income from securities decreased by 48.2% over the period 2017 to 2019, while net interest received from loans and deposits increased by 43.6% over the same period
  • All income increased by 10.8% between 2017 and 2018 and by 14.2% between 2018 and 2019
X-axis labelProfit linked to loans and depositsProfit linked to securitiesOther incomeValue of production
20174.50.93.79.1
20184.80.84.510.1
20195.60.34.610.6
  • Profit linked to loans and deposits increased by 16.8% in 2019 rising to €5.6bn compared to €4.8bn in 2018.  Annual increases were also recorded in production value (5.0%) and other income (4.0%) in 2019
  • Profit linked to securities fell from €774m in 2018 to €285m in 2019, a decrease of 63.2%
X-axis labelGross premiums earnedGross claims incurred
201752.839.6
201850.437
201956.337.3
  • Gross premiums earned by insurance companies increased by 11.8% between 2018 and 2019, while gross claims incurred increased by 0.6% in the same period
  • Fees receivable decreased by 5.9% over the period 2017-2018 and increased by 11.8% between 2018 and 2019
  • Investment income on insurance reserves (Technical a/c) increased by 21.7% between 2017 and 2019
  • Production for all insurance companies amounted to almost €18.1bn in 2019, an increase of 19.4% on the previous year
  • Gross operating surplus for insurance companies was almost €3.4bn in 2019, an increase of €465m or 16.0% on 2018 levels
8.1 Production account and generation of income for all banks, 2017 - 2019

8.2 Production account and generation of income for all insurance companies, 2017 - 2019

8.3 Summary of main indicators for banks and insurance, 2019

Go to next chapter >>>  International Comparisons