U.S. Insurers' Mortgage Holdings Kept Growing in 2020: NAIC

By Allison Bell

News September 30, 2021 at 03:04 PM

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U.S. insurers ended up with 4% more exposure to mortgage loans at the end of 2020 than they had a year earlier.

The mortgage lending total increased to $626 billion from $602 billion, according to a new report from the Capital Markets Bureau, a division of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Life insurers accounted for $601 billion of the 2020 total.

Life insurers were responsible for 15% of the U.S. commercial and multifamily mortgage loan value outstanding at the end of the first quarter of this year, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data cited by the NAIC analysts.

The Context

The latest Federal Reserve Board financial accounts report shows that total U.S. life insurer general account financial assets increased 11%, to $6.4 trillion, between the end of 2019 and the end of 2020.

Investments in mortgage loans make up about 9.4% of life insurers' financial assets.

Life insurers use investments in corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities and other instruments, including mortgage loans, to generate much of the cash used to pay insurance policy and annuity contract benefits.