AXA Poland is set to capitalise on strong growth opportunities in the Polish market in a bid to expand its employee benefits business.

Poland's weighted average 12-month second-pillar fund (OFE) returns soared to 17.6% as of the end of March, according to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF).

Poland's biggest oil refiner, PKN Orlen, is expected to post a 466-percent jump in its first quarter net profit mainly thanks to insurance payment, fuel sales and oil prices, a Reuters poll showed on Friday. The state-controlled oil firm is seen posting a bottom line of 1.9 billion zlotys (USD 476.42 million) compared to 337 million zlotys profit a year earlier, based on a forecast from eight banks and brokerages.

Polish insurance company PZU said on Wednesday that its supervisory board had dismissed its chief executive, Michal Krupinski. The firm, eastern Europe's largest insurer, did not give any reason for Krupinski's departure.

Poland's state insurance firm PZU said on Thursday it would stick to its core strategies and keep paying dividends, as it watched its share price fall sharply a day after it fired its chief executive.

Polish insurers' business remained stable in 2016, with total GWP of PLN 56.04 billion (EUR 12.7 billion), 2.25% up y-o-y in local currency, but slightly decreasing (-1.5%) when denominated in European currency. Life insurance continued to witness a falling trend, especially on the UL products line, which saw a 23% reduction in premiums.

POLAND Insurance company AXA, one of the biggest tenants of Warsaw Trade Tower (WTT), has expanded its office space by over 3,750 sqm to 15,560 sqm in total.

UNIQA TPL insurance is available with SkyCash since December 2016. This is another product, after a tourist cover, developed with the application users in mind. What is more, payments can be spread over as many as 12 instalments. Customers paying their instalments on time can also take advantage of a special promotion.

Motor insurance constitutes a major part of the property/casualty insurance sector in Poland. Its market share, according to the latest figures from industry association Polska Izba Ubezpieczen (PIU), is 49.9% of gross written premium. Add to that joint indemnities for compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (MTPL) and voluntary insurance policies such as accident and theft (casco), the figure rises to 68.8%.

Poland's largest insurer, PZU SA, is considering a 500 million euro Eurobond issue to bolster its capital buffers following its acquisition of UniCredit's Polish unit, its CEO said.

Michael KRUPINSKI, head of the Polish insurance leading group, PZU, has been awarded "Insurance Manager of the year 2016" by the national financial journal "Gazeta Bankowa", while the company won the "Most friendly insurance company" award in the category of motor insurance. The awards have been granted in recognition of PZU's impressing financial evolution last year, as well as of its customer centric culture.

The descendant trend established during the previous quarters in the Polish insurance market continued in Q3, with GWP falling by another 2%, to EUR 9.44 billion. While the absolute driver of the falling trend was again the life insurance segment, it is worth noting also that given the slightly weaker domestic currency has also a saying in the matter. Denominated in Polish Zloty, the GWP figure only shows a stagnant trend.

Italy

Financial sector development must go beyond improving access to bank credit. Financial systems should develop in a balanced way through both bank and nonbank subsectors, including capital markets, the insurance sector, and other nonbank financial institutions to properly support inclusive growth in Europe and Central Asia, says a new World Bank report.

After a quasi stable 2015, the Polish insurance market ended the first half of 2016 with an 8% y-o-y decrease in GWP, entirely driven by the decreasing life insurance business.

Poland's financial regulator KNF has asked the country's macroeconomic stability body KSF to give an opinion on whether to recognise Polish mBank as a "systemically important institution" and require it hold a capital buffer equal to 0.5 percent of its risk exposure, the bank said late on Wednesday.

A.M. Best has affirmed the financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating of "a-" of Polskie Towarzystwo Reasekuracji S.A. (Polish Re) (Poland). The outlook for each rating is stable.

Between June 27th and 29th, 2016, Polish Reinsurance Company (POLISH Re) together with CONCORDIA Insurance organized an underwriting and claims handling seminar dedicated to crop insurance, which took place in Torun, the city in the northern part of Poland. The seminar gathered more than 50 people, representatives of 10 insurance markets, such as: China, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany and Poland.

The downsize trend of the Polish insurance market continued in Q1, driven by the strongly negative change recorded on the life insurance segment. Thus, total GWP amounted to EUR 3.14 billion, 10.76% less y-o-y, while the GWP decrease in life insurance GWP was of 23.37% y-o-y, to EUR 1.34 billion. The Polish zloti depreciation against euro had also a say in the significant market decrease.

AEGON Poland has signed an agreement with a Nordic financial services firm, NORDEA to take over the management of NORDEA's Polish Pillar II pension fund. The deal will make AEGON Poland the fourth largest pension fund in the country. The deal is subjected to regulatory approval.