The Expense Ratio Development of Insurance Portfolios in Selected Insurance Companies in the Czech Republic in 2010-2017

This paper shall compare insurance portfolios in selected insurance companies operating in the Czech Republic based on the growth rate of premiums written and the expense ratio. It shall compare these insurance companies: CSOB Pojistovna, Komercni pojistovna, Kooperativa pojistovna, Pojistovna Ceske sporitelny and Ceska podnikatelska pojistovna. CSOB Pojistovna and Komercni pojistovna were selected because they are subjects with a developed bancassurance model and because the previous research suggested that insurance companies applying this model achieve a lower expense ratio. Kooperativa pojistovna, Ceska podnikatelska pojistovna and Pojistovna Ceske sporitelny were selected because they are members of the insurance group VIG in the Czech Republic and the group has cooperated with the Erste Group Bank since 2008 based on their Strategic Cooperation Agreement. The aim of this paper is to determine whether or not the selected insurance companies and the group VIG achieve lower expense ratio of the insurance portfolio than what is the average of the expense ratio of insurance portfolios on the Czech insurance market. The paper shall compare the expense ratio of selected commercial insurance companies and the average of the expense ratio on the Czech insurance market in the 2010-2017 period. The research confirms that CSOB Pojistovna and Komercni pojistovna reach lower values of expense ratio in life insurance. The insurance companies belonging to the VIG group (with the exception of Ceska podnikatelska pojistovna) reach lower values of ER in life insurance than the overall insurance market on average.