The insurance sector in Poland is expected to experience solid premium growth through 2013

“The insurance sector in Poland is expected to experience solid premium growth through 2013, in particular in the non-life segment, where increasing policy prices and higher sale volumes will boost premium income. The ongoing pension and health reforms will create new opportunities for both life and non-life insurers especially in the area of long-term pension and saving products and health insurance,” explains Marcin Mazurek, Director of Intelace Research, a consulting company specializing in CEE financial-markets research.

Insurers operating in Poland recorded a moderate premium growth of 5.5% in 2010. This was the effect of solid increases in non-life premiums (+ 8% YoY) and much slower growth in life premiums (+3.8% YoY).

The strength of the non-life segment can be attributed to higher prices (growth in average insurance premiums) and a higher number of policies sold. In the non-life segment, premiums increased most rapidly in natural disaster, fire, and property loss insurance policies.

In the life insurance segment, a strong recovery in unit-linked products could be observed while the collection of plain life insurance, including bank deposit substitutes, and accident insurance continued to contract.

Considering the whole region, Poland strengthened its position as the largest insurance market in the CEE15*, increasing its share in terms of total premiums from 39% in 2009 to 41% in 2010.

In the mid-term perspective, insurers operating in Poland will face multiple challenges: the trend of increasing claims is likely to persist, accelerating inflation may put additional pressure on operating costs, and the volatile equity markets may negatively affect investment profits.

On the other hand, the recently observed growth in new premiums driven by higher prices is likely to improve the financial condition of the sector.
Intelace Research expects the insurance sector to experience solid premium growth through 2013.

The dynamics of the non-life segment are likely to be slightly higher than that of the life business due to growing policy prices and thanks to new products coming to the market (e.g., health insurance).

In the life insurance segment, the ongoing pension reform will create additional opportunities for long-term pension and saving products.

For more information on recent developments in the Polish insurance market, please refer to the publication “Insurance market in Poland 2011–2013” available at: http://www.intelace.com/publications.html

Intelace Research is an independent consulting company that focuses on the financial markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Intelace Research specializes in management consulting and custom research services, including market entry strategy, product launch, and performance and benchmarking analysis.

Intelace Research
Stryjenskich 13c
02-791 Warszawa
POLAND

tel. +48 22 408 66 20
email: info@intelace.com

This release was published on openPR.