BOLI assets surpass $140B in first half 2013

Bank-owned life insurance assets grew to more than $140.4 billion in first half of 2013, up from $134.9 billion in first half 2012. Of all 6,940 banks and savings associations, 3,801 or 54.8% reported holding BOLI assets at mid-year 2013, the report shows.

BOLI assets held by commercial banks, savings banks and savings associations are to recover costs of employese benefits and offset liabilities for retirement benefits, helping banks to keep up with ever-rising benefit costs. BOLI may be differentiated by three types of assets: separate account life insurance or SALI assets, general account life insurance (GALI) assets and hybrid account life insurance (HALI) assets.

Among the study’s additional findings:

• Of 1,194 national banks, 628 or 52.6% recorded $89.61 billion in BOLI holdings, up 1.9% from $87.96 billion in first half 2012.
• Of 380 savings banks, 272 or 71.6% recorded $4.78 billion in BOLI holdings, up 8.1% from $4.42 billion in first half 2012.
• Of 580 savings associations, 287 or 49.5% recorded $4.38 billion in BOLI holdings, down 18.9% from $5.40 billion at mid-year 2012.
• Of 849 state-chartered member commercial banks, 553 or 65.1% of them reported holding $20.39 billion in BOLI assets in first half 2013, up 15.0% from $17.74 billion in first half 2012.
• Of the 3,937 state-chartered non-member banks, 2,061 or 52.3% of them reported holding $21.19 billion in BOLI assets at mid-year 2013, up 9.5% from $19.35 billion in first half 2012.