Quasi-mandatory systems. In a subset of market-based systems, financial institutions generally require coverage for at least some climate-related hazards as a precondition for mortgages. These conditions create a de facto mandatory underwriting requirement, even though by linking national coverage rates to estate purchases. Thus, national penetration rates may fluctuate according to the trends of the domestic housing market, in systems based on NATCAT insurance as a requirement for mortgage. The Polish system of disaster risk management has evolved from the fall of the socialist political and economic regimes in eastern and central Europe, in a similar fashion to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, presenting now relatively high penetration rates of private insurance. Disaster risk management had been treated as a secondary issue during the overhaul of the social, political and institutional system of Poland after the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the joining of the EU. It was the flood of 1997, and the adherence to the common European market to give force to reforms. The catastrophic flood of 1997 triggered a deep revision of the system, and there was an (unsuccessful) attempt to institute a countrywide universal mandatory insurance provision for every household (Xxxxxxx et al., 2016). Political opposition at the time maintained that it would have eventually diminished the effectiveness of recovery. However, the 1-in-200-year event pushed the state to enact considerable investments in flood defence infrastructures on national and regional levels. The building of the modern policy framework for disaster risk management comes with the drawing of the Water Act of 2001 (Polish Journal of Laws January 1, 2002) and the accession to the EU. The Implementation of the EU Floods directive brought the development of flood hazard and damage maps and risk management plans (Xxxxxxx et al., 2016). After a second large flooding event in 2010, Poland saw a renewed attempt to xxxxxx its risk management capacity. There was a second (also unsuccessful) attempt to draft a compulsory catastrophe insurance law, foreseeing the two state-owned companies (PZU and Warta) to offer standalone insurance to every homeowner, while partially reinsuring the risk of the international markets. Meanwhile, the Water Law was amended, including flood risk maps, designed by the State Water Company Wody Polskie, into local zoning plans (Xxxxxxx, 2012). This gave local governments the ability to deny construction rights in hi...
