Small insurance firms gain ground on market leaders

However, it's a different year on year story for market giants, such as the PZU and Warta, who are losing market share to smaller insurers. Although PZU still controls over half of the market (52.66%), back in 2002 this figure stood at 64.31%. The top dogs are being chased down by smaller competitors such as HDI Asekuracja, Allianz, Ergo Hestia and Link4. "When we were launching operations, the competition said we would not last a year," says Link4 president Zofia Dzik, "After 3.5 years of operation we reached the break-even point, we are now the leaders in the direct segment and we are continuously cutting the distance between the largest players." According to the Polish Insurance Chamber a lot of insurers are financially losing out on selling car insurance, as between 1999-2005 the OC mandatory policies cost the insurers zl.660 million. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 8) A.K.