Responsible for more than 15 million customers

Providing first-class service to around 15.5 million customers in Austria and Central Europe is the basis for the success and future potential of the UNIQA Group. While we are traditionally firmly anchored in our home market of Austria, we are pursuing a course of consistent growth in CEE. The acquisition of the AXA companies in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia considerably strengthened our market position in this promising region last year in particular.

Austria: strong brand, strong position

We have been operating our insurance business in our home market of Austria for more than 200 years. With a market share of around 21 per cent, we are now the second-largest Austrian insurance company, and rank first in the health insurance segment. We service 3.7 million customers in Austria, either directly or through our banking and sales partner Raiffeisen.

The key factors in our healthy market position are innovative products, a powerful sales force and the firmly established UNIQA and Raiffeisen brands. The significant economic growth expected following the end of the Covid-19 crisis, a stable political environment and a prudent regulator also open up good prospects for the future. This is because there is still potential in the Austrian insurance market: Austrians currently spend €2,002 on average on insurance each year. This is still relatively low compared with other western European countries, especially given the high standard of living in Austria.

CEE: Significant catch-up potential in insurance density

Insurance expenditure in Central and Eastern Europe is currently still well below this level. With an average annual premium of €233 per capita, CEE contributes a total of around 40 per cent to UNIQA Group premiums following the acquisition of the AXA companies in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Yet the region is catching up: the average premium per capita is already around €425 in the more developed Central European insurance markets of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, which we have defined as our second core market, and this trend is on the rise.

This represents an attractive potential for UNIQA: with around 11.7 million people, three quarters of our customers already live in CEE. This region, which is home to around 155 million people, or even more than 300 million when Russia is included, has been experiencing a remarkable economic upswing for years. Although Covid-19 also caused a noticeable economic slump here last year as well, the performance of the insurance markets in the region overall was largely stable. And the insurance density will also increase once again as the overall economic situation continues to improve following the pandemic.

This is because with growing prosperity, insurance for apartments and homes as well as personal protection products, such as accident and health insurance, are gaining more ground in addition to motor vehicle liability insurance, which traditionally represents the largest volume in CEE.

We are also relying on a strong sales force in CEE and on our well-established partnership with Raiffeisen and, in some countries, with Addiko and mBank, in order to exploit this growth potential. Overall, these sales partnerships with the well-established regional banks provide us with access to approximately 19 million of their customers in twelve countries.

CEE: a region with major growth potential

Insurance spending per person and year in €