#SAVINGS & FINANCIAL PRODUCTS
"French euro funds paid 2.63% in 2025." That is a market average. Within a single insurer, the gap between the best and worst rewarded contracts reaches 0.99 percentage point.
Published on September 11, 2026 · to be rechecked on July 31, 2027
On 30 June 2026 the ACPR, France's prudential supervisor, published its annual review of life insurance crediting rates, covering 116 undertakings and 36,053 contract versions. The average rate credited on the euro-denominated portion of individual contracts came to 2.63% in 2025, unchanged from 2024. That average already includes commercial bonuses, typically granted according to how much of the contract is held in unit-linked funds: often 100 basis points, sometimes more than 200. Within a single insurer, the gap between the best and worst rewarded groups of contracts averages 0.99 percentage point, against 0.77 in 2024. A policyholder receiving no bonus at all gets at least 0.39 point less than the headline average.
Is the headline rate on a euro fund the rate each policyholder actually receives?
No. It is a weighted average that includes bonuses; without a bonus, the rate is at least 0.39 point lower.
In other words: what a euro fund returns depends as much on which product range the contract sits in as on how the insurer invests.
Five caveats that belong with the number
- The 0.99 point is measured between the 90% and 10% quantiles of each insurer's assets: it is a lower bound, as gaps inside a single product range are not counted.
- The 2.63% is net of management fees charged on assets, but before the 17.2% French social levies.
- Dispersion also exists between insurers: half of all assets are credited between 2.3% and 2.9%.
- Bank-owned insurers, holding 65% of assets, credit 2.70% on average; traditional insurers 2.48%, and mutuals 3.17% on 2% of assets.
- A unit-linked bonus requires actually holding unit-linked funds, where capital is not guaranteed.
Why it still matters: a market-wide average says nothing about what any given contract actually paid.
For you
- Do you know which group of contracts your insurer has placed you in?
- Does an average rate that hides a one-point spread tell a saver anything useful?
Source: ACPR, Analyses et synthèses No. 180, "Revalorisation 2025 des contrats d'assurance-vie et de capitalisation", 30 June 2026.
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