Poland: 13% slowdown for the insurance market in 2009
In 2009, gross premium written on the Polish insurance market dropped by above 13 per cent to EUR 13.3 billion. At the same time, the persons who insured their cars, houses and other property, received above EUR 3.13 billion from insurers in the form of indemnities in 2009, while the benefits from life insurance reached approx. EUR 7.3 billion, as results from the data gathered by PIU. The growth of payments of benefits and indemnities with a simultaneous drop of premium was decisive for insurers' financial results.
This can be illustrated by the example of non-life insurers. Growth of the value of indemnities by one fourth (with a growth of premium by as little as 3.8 per cent) was the reason of the technical loss amounting to EUR 58 million and reported by the non-life market by the end of 2009. Non-life insurers' net profit dropped from EUR 870 million down to EUR 700 million.
Life insurers reported better financial results than the year before, in spite of a growth of benefits paid and a drop of premium. It was caused, to a large extent, by higher revenues from investment. Life insurers increased them by above 46%. In total, life insurers earned EUR 1 billion in 2009 which is 59% more than the year before.
The value of indemnities and benefits paid in 2009 was the highest in the whole history of Polish insurance market in respect of both life and non-life business. As far as life insurance is concerned, the value of benefits grew by as much as 43% which was related to the expiry of short-term investment wrapped in policies. Most indemnities on the non-life market were related, like every year, to motor insurance.
Insurers paid above EUR 1.3 billion (a growth by 18%) from MTPL policies and EUR 960 million from CASCO policies (a growth by 20.7%). At the same time, the market faced a drop of value of the premiums collected by insurers.
Insurers collected EUR 7.9 billion for life policies which means a drop by above 22% on year-to-year basis. This drop is the result of withdrawal of many insurers from offering investment policies distributed through the banks. Non-life insurers increased slightly their gross premium written in 2009, up to EUR 5.47 billion (3.6% more than the year before).
