Performance of the Polish Insurance Sector in the Second Decade of the 21st Century

The study analyzes the performance of the Polish insurance sector between 2010 and 2019. The analysis was based on source materials from the Statistical Yearbook published by Statistics Poland (GUS), reports of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) and the Polish Chamber of Insurance (PIU). The main indicators describing the performance of the insurance market, including its concentration, number of policies, market structure, competitiveness, consumer behavior, and the financial performance of insurance companies were identified and analyzed. The strengths and weaknesses of the Polish private insurance market in the last ten years were determined. The main weakness was a considerable decrease in the sale of life insurance (branch I) policies, which was manifested by a steady decrease in gross premium, a continued decline in insurance density and penetration rate, deteriorating financial performance, and a decrease in the number of branch I insurance companies. Considerably better results were reported in the non-life insurance segment (branch II), where gross earned premium continued to improve and increased by around 64% over the analyzed decade. The non-life sector was also characterized by a steady improvement in density (increase of PLN 436), penetration rate (increase of 0.07%) and financial performance (net technical result increased by PLN 4.2 billion, net profit increased by PLN 1.5 billion).