Insurance companies and pension funds (ICPF) in the advanced economies have become increasingly important within the financial sector. In these economies, an ageing population coexisting with inadequate social security schemes has driven families to look for alternatives to complement their income after retirement.

At the same time, insurance companies are highly innovative, having developed a range of products that compete with banks' deposits for households' savings.

As such, have assumed a pivotal role for the assets they hold and manage, which makes them major players as institutional investors, not only on public debt but also as a source of funds to enterprises.

Therefore a careful analysis of the dynamics of their assets' portfolio and their liabilities counterparts is important not only for monetary policy but also for macro prudential analysis.

Banco de Portugal has devoted a special attention to this financial subsector, developing a statistical framework that meets the European System of Central Banks' statistical standards for ICPF, using available supervisory data.

We will explain the methodologies developed to fill the gap between supervisory and statistical data and assess the main trends of the behaviour of this sector in Portugal.

Keywords: Insurance companies; Pension funds; Institutional investors

Biography: Filipa Lima is Head of the Financial Accounts and Securities Statistics Division at the Statistics Department of Banco de Portugal since July 2009. She has previously been Head Methodological Developments Unit and worked as a Monetary and Financial Statistics Expert at the Statistics Department of Banco de Portugal.

She holds a PhD in Economics from Faculdade de Economia – Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

She has previously worked at the European Central Bank and the Bank for International Settlements.