Research and Markets: Report Provides Independent Forecasts and Competitive Intelligence on Poland's Insurance Industry

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/a55177/poland_insurance_r) has announced the addition of the "Poland Insurance Report Q4 2008" report to their offering.

The Poland Insurance Report provides independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Poland's insurance industry.

This report is being written at a time that the global financial crisis - which arose as a result of the evaporation of inter-bank liquidity - appeared to be moving towards a resolution: the governments of the UK, the US and most of the larger countries in the euro area have all announced plans to make funds available - in one form or another - to their respective commercial banking sectors. As yet, it is too early to identify the impact of the crisis on particular emerging markets. However, in the regular section which discusses the changes which we are making to the report, we include a lengthy essay which attempts to identify the key issues. In essence, in the emerging markets (and, indeed, the developed countries) of Asia Pacific, commercial banks and insurers appear to be well placed to deal with the crisis. The same is, broadly, true of commercial banks and insurers in the various countries of the Middle East and North Africa. In Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia appear better placed than Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. South Africa's situation appears to have much in common with that of Brazil. By contrast, Nigeria faces some of the same challenges as those that confront Venezuela. The positions of most countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), however, are alarming.

It has not been practicable for us to collate the latest figures for assets and premium income this quarter. The global financial situation has been changing so rapidly that most numbers would have become out of date. Nevertheless, we expect that, in coming months, it will become obvious that credit growth is slowing dramatically in most of the countries whose commercial banking sectors are profiled in our reports. We will amend the figures - and indeed our forecasts - accordingly.

In CEE, we profile 22 multi-national insurance companies. In alphabetical order, these are AEGON, AIG, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Cardif, ERGO, Eureko, Fortis, Generali, GRAWE, Groupama, HDI-Gerling, HSBC Insurance, ING, MetLife, Prudential Financial, QBE, RSA, UNIQA, Vienna Insurance Group and Zurich Financial Services. We also discuss the regional presence of Belgium's KBC and Austria's Erste Bank through a number of insurance subsidiaries and explain the importance, for each of the various countries, of purely domestic firms.

In 2007, total premiums in Poland rose by 17% to PLN43.75bn. Non-life premiums rose by 11% to PLN18.23bn, while life premiums rose by 21% to PLN25.51bn. Between now and the end of the forecast period, we expect that annual non-life premiums will grow by PLN15.88n, while annual Life premiums should increase by PLN9.46bn. Growth in non-life premiums should be driven by the general growth in nominal GDP plus a rise in non-life penetration from the current level of 1.70% to 2.30%. Growth in life premiums should be driven by the change in the overall population and a rise in life density from US$277.05 to US$380.00 per capita. Our Insurance Business Environment Rating is 63.9. Poland Industry

Companies Mentioned:

• AEGON
• AIG
• Allianz
• Aviva
• AXA
• Cardif
• Ergo
• Eureko
• Fortis
• Grawe
• Groupama
• HDI-Gerling
• HSBC Insurance
• ING
• MetLife
• Prudential Financial
• QBE
• RSA
• UNIQA
• Vienna Insurance Group
• Zurich

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/a55177/poland_insurance_r.