January 18, 2019.- The Financial Market Commission (CMF) released today the Quarterly Statistical Report on the securities and insurance markets for the third quarter of 2018.

This report shows the evolution of different statistical variables of the main market participants under CMF supervision: fund managers, insurance companies, securities intermediaries, and commodity brokers.

At the end of the third quarter of 2018, the investment portfolios of mutual funds, investment funds, and life and general insurance companies summed US$149 billion, which represents a growth of 3.5% compared to June 2018. Higher investments in corporate debt instruments and in State debt instruments, which increased by US$2,161 million and US$1,111 million, respectively, explain this increase.

As for the diversification of the investment portfolio by country of origin of the instruments that compose it, 83.3% corresponds to assets of national origin and the remaining (16.7%) to foreign investments, according to figures reported at the end of September 2018. In turn, as regards to the diversification of the portfolio invested abroad, the United States and Luxembourg turn to be the main investment destinations, representing 34.5% and 10.6%, respectively, of total foreign assets at that date.

For its part, the total assets managed by funds and insurance companies continue the growing trend at the end of September 2018, reaching US$155 billion in that period, which represents an increase of 2.8% compared to June 2018, and a growth of 8.5% compared to September 2017.

Amounts traded during the quarter totaled US$110 billion, a decrease of 1.5% compared to the same period in 2017, driven by lower financial intermediation and equity transactions, which decreased by 6.1% and 0.7%, respectively. However, in cumulative terms, transactions at September of 2018 were 10.8% higher than in the same period of the previous year.

The insurance market had a direct premium of US$3.32 billion during the third quarter of 2018, representing an increase of 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Life insurance premiums increased by US$48 million compared to the previous quarter, while general insurance premiums increased by US$47 million.

Both this Statistical Report and the databases from which it was elaborated are published in the statistics section of the CMF website.