Standard & Poor's foresees Poland as insurance paradise

In 10 years Poland will become Europe's biggest insurance market, say Standard & Poor's Financial Services Group (S&P) rating agency experts in a recently issued report concerning the Polish insurance market. They add that the segments with best perspectives are estate and life insurance, while at the same time the medical insurance segment will be rather sluggish. "Further economic growth after Poland's accession to the EU will contribute to a faster increase of Poland's GDP, which in turn will lead to a boom on the Polish insurance market," the report states. However, according to the agency the biggest player in the sector will remain Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU), whose market share is now 57%. With its well developed retail network, the giant is ranked no. 25 among the 50 biggest European insurers, and its position on the domestic car insurance market is very strong. Thus smaller companies have to look for money in other sectors like real estate insurance, which has potential to expand rapidly in a few years, say the S&P experts. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B5) J.K.