Results of the insurance market in 2013

In 2013 Polish insurers paid out PLN 23 billion in the form of life insurance benefits and PLN 13.7 billion in the form of compensations and non-life insurance benefits.

 

Motor insurance market

Key data:
• Motor third party liability insurance – 1 million of compensations and benefits paid out in the amount of PLN 5.39 billion
• Vehicle own damage insurance – almost 700 thousands of compensations paid out in the amount of almost PLN 3.5 billion
• Gross written premium from motor third party liability insurance amount to PLN 8.25 billion (down by 5.62 percentage points)
• Gross written premium from vehicle own damage insurance amounted to PLN 5.32 billion (down by 5.43 percentage points)

PIU comment:
In 2013 on the motor third party liability insurance market we dealt with a higher number of damages than the year before. As a result of this increase, the total amount of insurers’ charges of motor third party liability insurance increased YoY by 1.02 percentage points.
Technical result of motor third party liability insurance remained negative and in 2013 amounted to PLN -266 million (in the previous year:
PLN -467 million). – Since many months we have been emphasizing that there has been imbalance observed in the motor third party liability market. The results at the end of 2013 confirm this disproportion – says Jan Grzegorz Prądzyński, President of the Management Board of PIU.

Non-life market (excluding motor insurance)

Key data:
• Premium from non-life market (excluding motor insurance) exceeded PLN 13 billion and was by 9.6 percentage points higher than the year before.
• Premium from insurance of financial risks increased significantly (almost by 41 percentage points). It results, inter alia, from the adjustment of tariff rates to the risk level.

PIU comment:
In 2013 both insurance against damage caused by fire and other natural forces (class 8) and insurance against damage to property (class 9) remained profitable. Significant increase in the number of mandatory insurances of farm buildings may result from a change in the method of results reporting by insurance companies. This may be proven by two facts:
• The number of farms in Poland is decreasing, which should cause a decrease rather than an increase in the number of insurance policies.
• Premium from mandatory insurance of farm buildings has not increased significantly, which supports the assumption concerning a change of the reporting method, not a rapid increase in the number of farm buildings in Poland.

Life market

Key data:
• Total compensations and benefits from all life insurances amounted to PLN 23 billion (down by 10.91 percentage points)
• Premium from life insurance decreased by 14.05 percentage points to PLN 31.26 billion.
• Premium from insurance equity fund (in Polish UFK) policies increased to PLN 13 billion (by 8.34 percentage points), with a similar number of policies
PIU comment:
Short-term life insurances, the so called policy-deposits have an impact on a decrease in a premium on the market. It is in this class of product where the highest fall in a premium has been observed (over 32 percentage points). However, a premium relating to long-term savings (insurance equity fund) is increasing along with an increase in the value of payments for such insurances (PLN 7.4 billion in 2013, up by 11.59 percentage points compared with the previous year.)

Net financial results

In 2013 the net profit of life insurers exceeded PLN 2.8 billion and was by 4.78 percentage points lower than the year before. According to the data from financial statements, non-life insurers ended the year 2013 with a profit of PLN 6.14 billion. It should be clearly emphasized that this result is connected, first of all, with the dividend policy of the Polish largest insurance group. In 2013 Polish insurers paid PLN 1.14 billion of income tax.

Table with financial results