In 2006, insurance companies collected nearly PLN 10 billion (EUR 2.58m) of automobile policies. A year earlier, it was PLN 9.88 billion. According to the Polish Insurance Chamber (PIU), insurers had to pay additional PLN 660m in the years 1999-2005 to cover the costs of the accidents caused by policyholders only. PZU, the leader, keeps losing its market share. In 2006, it had 52.66 percent of the market. In 2002, it was 64.31 percent. Warta is the second in the ranking with 9.81 percent of the market, down from 11.62 percent in 2002. HDI Asekuracja has 6.92 percent market share last year.
According to PIU, only three out of 27 insurers had income in the automobile insurance business. Last year, they managed to have PLN 200m of income in this business. In 2006, the value of the damages exceeded PLN 6 billion. Specialists point out that the reason automobile insurance is not profitable, is that the companies offer too low prices. Although there were 14.76m of automobile policies last year against 13.6m a year earlier, their value grew only slightly.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.258)