This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
Bogdan Benczak is already the third CEO in the past two years. The dismissal of both his predecessors came as a surprise and resulted from political tensions. Less than two months after taking the helm, Mr. Benczak made his debut at the results conference for Poland’s largest insurer. His first meeting with investors, analysts, and media.
While a previous conference focused on PZU’s international operations, Mr. Benczak declined then to make commitments or promises. He requested time to review PZU’s status and develop actionable plans. He unveiled those plans on November 20.
New PZU head sees potential to increase company valuation
Like his predecessor Andrzej Klesyk, Bogdan Benczak opened his presentation with key market valuation indicators comparing PZU to other major European insurers. In terms of price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), PZU’s score of 8.4 lags behind Germany’s Allianz (13.9), Italy’s Generali (12.9), and France’s Axa (11.5). PZU’s biggest shareholder is State Treasury (a 34% stake).
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Fullscreen “The group still holds enormous potential. When we examine our European peers, the room for growth is clear, both in P/E and price-to-book (P/B) ratios. Our goal is to improve these metrics,” Mr. Benczak declared.
He and his team plan to achieve this by effectively responding to key market trends. The first is rising societal wealth, opening opportunities to boost insurance sales and attract investment through PZU. The second is population aging, which is expected to increase demand for health and life insurance products. Mr. Benczak also highlighted economic growth, driving greater corporate insurance needs.
On the challenge side, he pointed to competitive pricing pressures in Motor Third Party Liability (MTPL) and comprehensive motor insurance. Another major hurdle is the evolution of policy distribution – over 50% of sales now occur through multi-agencies and insurance brokers. Furthermore, an interest rate cut arrived sooner than expected, negatively affecting investment income for PZU and its banking subsidiaries, Pekao and Alior.
He wants to rebuild share in property insurance policies
“I want to focus on regaining our position in mass property insurance. After nine months of 2025, results look strong in the non-motor segment [i.e. excluding MTPL and comprehensive motor insurance], but we plan to adopt a comprehensive approach. This includes refining our pricing tools, improving our models, and preparing to implement a new claims handling system,” says Bogdan Benczak.
The manager notes that property insurance was PZU's competitive advantage for years, but that edge has eroded in recent times. This was also highlighted by Andrzej Klesyk in March 2025, who pointed out that PZU’s claims settlement process had lengthened significantly and lost its competitiveness.
“Our ambition is to build the best claims handling system on the market. We are currently evaluating system providers and hope to complete the selection by mid-2026. The implementation itself will take 2 to 2.5 years,” Mr. Benczak adds.
Alongside improved pricing and claims handling, PZU aims to attract customers through enhanced product offerings and distribution channels.
While not explicitly stated, PZU’s loss of market share in property insurance has largely stemmed from declines in motor third-party liability insurance. In 2025, PZU fell from its position as the largest player in that market segment, with Warta taking the lead and widening its margin to 2% in the second quarter.
Plans to expand the healthcare business
Bogdan Benczak highlighted PZU’s healthcare operations, represented by PZU Zdrowie, which has had a new president for two weeks – Grzegorz Krycki, the former CEO of a hospital.
“We aim to strengthen both our market position and profitability. Significant progress has already been made this year, and we have several initiatives planned to boost patient numbers and increase their engagement with our facilities,” says Mr. Benczak.
One of the strategies involves transforming traditional group life insurance sold to companies into a comprehensive employee benefit. The focus is not only on insurance coverage but also on integrating health services and additional offerings.
This approach continues the focus initiated by Andrzej Klesyk. In an April 2025 interview with XYZ, he set a target to raise health-related revenues to PLN 5 billion. After nine months of 2025, health revenues stand at PLN 1.6 billion (EUR 378m) – 14% higher than the previous year. PZU currently operates a network of 4,100 own and partner health facilities.
Plans to deepen cooperation with Pekao and Alior
The manager emphasized the need to strengthen collaboration with Pekao and Alior banks. In Q3, jointly with these banks, PZU generated PLN 420 million (EUR 99m) in gross written premiums, which is 8% lower than a year earlier.
“In 2026, we will focus on stand-alone products [not linked to loans]. Just recently, we launched a new home and apartment insurance product at Pekao, which has also been available through our agency network for several months. We plan to introduce stand-alone insurance products at Alior Bank as well. Motor insurance is being prepared and is expected to launch there in the first half of 2026. Over time, we will roll out additional products, including life insurance,” explained Jan Zimowicz, member of PZU’s management board.
Mr. Zimowicz added that future growth will come from products unrelated to loans, as the insurer is already satisfied with credit policy sales. However, the company’s ambitions extend beyond its own banks; PZU is preparing to launch a new product within ING’s offering.
The reorganization of PZU and Pekao depends on political decisions
Since June 2025, PZU and Pekao have been working on the Copenhagen project, a capital reorganization plan aimed at merging the two entities and potentially freeing up as much as PLN 20 billion (EUR 4.7bn). Bogdan Benczak emphasized that PZU is closely monitoring the legislative environment and will respond as needed. The merger depends on the introduction of a package of four bills required to proceed. In early November, Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported that the Ministry of State Assets is considering splitting the package into parts to streamline the process and increase the chances of reorganization – even if President Karol Nawrocki issues a veto.
“Our strategy assumes that without the capital reorganization, our capital ratios would drop to 190%, which would still allow us to pay dividends in line with our policy. We are prepared for the possibility that if this project does not go forward, PZU will maintain a stable capital position,” Mr. Benczak stated.
While the manager did not comment on Alior Bank’s future, he addressed inquiries about Link4, PZU Group’s motor insurance specialist. He expressed satisfaction with recent actions and outlined plans to integrate Link4 into a multi-brand strategy.
“We are working on how to incorporate Link4 within this concept. By the end of the year, we expect greater clarity on Link4’s status,” Mr. Benczak said.
However, this implies further delays, considering that in March 2025 he had indicated that several months would be needed to develop an optimal model for Link4’s role within the group.
PZU’s profit up, premiums stable
In Q3, PZU earned nearly PLN 2 billion in net profit, marking a 64.2% increase from the previous year. Most of this growth came from the insurance segment, which surged by 127% year-on-year to PLN 1.42 billion (EUR 335m). The remainder of the profit was generated by banking activities, represented by Pekao and Alior Bank. Overall, after three quarters, net profit rose 42.7% to PLN 5.2 billion (EUR 1.23bn).
Interactive chart Fullscreen Gross written premiums, however, showed weaker results, declining slightly by 0.1% year-on-year to PLN 4.28 billion (EUR 1bn). This drop was largely due to seasonally lower premiums in the corporate property insurance segment and a 1.7% decline in motor insurance sales – including MTPL and comprehensive coverage.
“This primarily reflects a decrease in the Link4 mass portfolio, caused by price adjustments in the multi-agency channel following losses the company incurred in 2024. At PZU, our focus has been on profitability which led to a deliberate slowdown in growth,” explained Tomasz Kulik, member of PZU’s management board responsible for finance. On a more positive note, the insurer reported a 3% year-on-year increase in life insurance premiums to PLN 1.98 billion (EUR 467m), driven mainly by significant 8% growth in individual policies.
Key takeaways
- Bogdan Benczak, the new head of PZU, intends to continue the plans outlined by his predecessor, Andrzej Klesyk. These include increasing PZU's valuation, growing market share in property insurance, and expanding the health segment.
- The executive notes that the reorganization of the PZU group—whereby Pekao bank would become the parent company—is now in the hands of policymakers. He emphasizes that even if the restructuring plans fall through, the insurer is capable of paying dividends in line with its announced dividend policy through 2027.
- One priority is implementing a new claims settlement system. Currently, this is no longer a competitive advantage for PZU and actually lags behind competitors' offerings. Assessments are already underway, and PZU aims to select a solution by mid-2026.