PZU hopes to capture lion's share of IKE market

Financial institutions will soon launch the Individual Pension Account (IKE) offensive, offering new tax-exempt pension saving accounts to millions. A cautious forecast by Krzysztof Iwaniak from MultiBank puts the number of IKE account holders in one year's time at one million. Banks, insurance companies, investment funds and other financial intermediaries alike are going to offer their agents as much as zł.200 for each customer signed up, not quite as much as the zł.500-700 paid when the second-pillar pension funds were launched. State-owned insurance giant PZU is aiming to capture 20% of the IKE market and has launched its advertising campaign even before its call-center operators have been trained to fully answer questions. Insurance companies face the risk of eating their own tails - with customers likely to choose IKE accounts over life insurance policies they held so far. Meanwhile, state-owned retail bank giant PKO BP will have a preferential position, it will be the sole distributor of special ten-year IKE bonds to be issued by the Finance Ministry. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 23) T.J.