On Thursday, April 21, 2022, the Banking and Insurance Leaders Gala was held at the Westin Hotel in Warsaw, which was the culmination of the spring edition of the Banking & Insurance Forum, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa informed being the main media partner of the event's insurance part.

Gross written premium in the bancassurance channel amounted to PLN 6.83 billion (EUR 1.32 billion), up by 22.9% y-o-y, reported the Polish Chamber of Insurance in its latest quarterly report on bancassurance.

ERGO HESTIA, one of the largest insurers in Polish insurance market announced that, after 31 years, its Vice President - Grzegorz SZATKOWSKI will leave the company.

The Polish insurance market saw a 9.5% y-o-y increase in the total GWP, to EUR 15.05 billion. Paid claims increased at a lower pace, reaching EUR 8.98 billion, 4.5% more y-o-y. The non-life sector, in particular the property and motor insurance lines provided for most of the market's business growth.

PZU Group, the largest financial institution in Poland and CEE with the first insurance company established in Poland, on March 21 signed a letter of intent with Bank Ochrony Srodowiska on establishment of the strategic cooperation in bancassurance, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

The pandemic has caused an increase in both interest in life insurance and payments from this type of compensation, said Marcin TARCZYNSKI, an analyst of the Polish Chamber of Insurance, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

Polish insurance market totaled PLN 50.9 billion (EUR 10.9 billion) at the end of September 2021, up by almost 7% y-o-y, according to the quarterly market figures published by The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). Claims and benefits paid by local insurers increased by 2.9% y-o-y to PLN 30.2 billion or ~EUR 6.5 billion.

During the 25th year of Europ Assistance's operations in Poland, the company's service volumes returned to pre-pandemic levels, and in some areas, the operator of assistance services handled even more cases than in the period before Covid-19.

The pandemic led to an over half-million increase in the number of individual life policies and lower interest in group contracts, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports referring to the data of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.

According to data collected by the Polish Insurance Association (PIU), as at September 30, 2021, GWP through the banking channel reached PLN 5.21 billion, 26% more y-o-y (~EUR 1.12 billion*).

NN Group announces that it has obtained competition clearance from the European Commission to acquire MetLife's business activities in Poland and Greece. The intended acquisition was announced on 5 July 2021.

The insurance market in Poland (GWP) will increase in 2023 to PLN 76.5 billion (~EUR 16.6 billion*). This year the market will grow by 7%, to PLN 67.7 billion (vs PLN 63.4 billion in 2020). The prospects for insurers operating in Poland remain "mostly positive", said the experts from Inteliace Research, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

More than two and a half times increase in net profit y-o-y, historically high GWP, nearly 18% return on equity - these are the most impressive achievements of the PZU Group in the first three quarters of this year, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

On November 3, S&P Global Ratings affirmed the rating of the PZU Group at A- with a stable outlook. According to the agency, the company maintained good financial results and a stable capital position, and the group's dominant market position, recognizable brand and diversified structure will allow for continued growth, both on local and foreign markets, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

Every year Poles choose personal insurance more and more, thus the number of people covered by health insurance increased by 14% as of now, and the number of group contracts for life protection increased by 6%. About 3.5 million people are using health insurance policies and almost 12 million are covered by group life insurance, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

Beata SIWCZYNSKA-ANTOSIEWICZ is the new Generali Poland CFO, Generali CEE Holding announced in a statement on its website. She takes up the position of Member of the Management Board of Generali Poland as well.

Car owners have been complaining about many increases recently. Besides high fuel prices, they have also started to feel an increase in the cost of compulsory third party liability insurance, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased interest in life and health insurance, noted Malgorzata SADURSKA, a PZU board member during the discussion at Congress 590 on how the financial market responds to the new fears and needs of Poles, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that the amount of subsidies to premiums for insurance of crops and livestock allocated in the state budget for 2021 has been increased, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa reports.

Austrian insurer UNIQA announced it successfully concluded the merger of its units with the former AXA subsidiaries in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia acquired a year ago for a total cash consideration of EUR 1.0 billion.