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Poland Insurance and Securities Reform
In July 1990, the insurance system was reorganized.
Abolished
were the monopoly State Insurance Company, which had been
responsible for all domestic insurance, and the Insurance
and
Reinsurance Company, which had been responsible for all
foreign
transactions. Domestic and foreign-owned private limited
stock
and mutual insurance companies were then allowed to begin
operating. At the same time, procedures were introduced to
maintain adequate financial reserves and legal protection
for
people and assets insured. At the end of 1991, twenty-two
insurance companies were operating in Poland, six of which
were
foreign-owned.
In early 1991, important legislation was introduced to
regulate securities transactions and establish a stock
exchange
in Warsaw. At the same time, a securities commission was
formed
for consumer protection. A year later, the shares of
eleven
Polish companies were being traded weekly on the new
exchange.
Restructuring the financial market not only was necessary
for
increasing the overall efficiency of the economy and
accelerating
privatization but also was a precondition for the rapid
influx of
Western capital critical to economic development.
Data as of October 1992
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