Australia's intermediated general insurance market is growing, but it is concentrating in fewer hands, according to data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on September 29.
Total premium invoiced through intermediaries for the six months ended June 2026 reached $21.87 billion, up from $21.59 billion in the same period a year earlier. Gross written premium across all APRA-authorised general insurers reached $36.89 billion, the highest recorded across the five consecutive half-year periods in the dataset.
The premium numbers point upward. The intermediary numbers do not.
The number of intermediaries placing business with underwriters fell to 604 in the June 2026 half, from 665 in June 2025, a decline of around 9% in 12 months.
Over the same period, the total count of registered intermediaries barely shifted: 1,735 in June 2026 against 1,729 a year earlier.
The number that placed no business at all rose to 1,107, the highest in APRA's five-period dataset, up from 1,039 in June 2025. Close to two-thirds of all registered intermediaries wrote nothing in the period.
The trend holds across individual channels. Intermediaries placing with APRA-authorised general insurers dropped from 625 in June 2025 to 566 in June 2026. Those placing with Lloyd's underwriters fell from 348 to 326, and UFI-active intermediaries contracted from 97 to 77.
The result is more premium flowing through fewer active firms, with the number of active intermediaries falling in every channel.
Consolidation is the most likely explanation. As broker groups acquire smaller firms, business that was once placed by several separate intermediaries is increasingly written through a single acquirer, even where the acquired entities remain registered. PwC Australia's 2026 financial services M&A outlook identified broker and MGA roll-ups as a structural trend, with listed broker groups expanding specialty lines while regional consolidation deepened distribution.
The National Insurance Brokers Association's (NIBA) June 2026 Data to Direction report found the broking sector already concentrated, with nine leading member organisations accounting for close to 100% of the gross written premium captured in its research. Steadfast accounted for 34%, Marsh 20% and Aon 13%.
NIBA CEO Richard Klipin has pointed to regulatory complexity as a factor weighing on the profession. As he noted in the Insurance Outlook Report 2026, published by software company Drova: "In reality, it's one plus one plus one plus one, and over many years you layer on lots of regulation. It becomes complex, it becomes costly, it becomes difficult to manage – and clients can get confused."
For commercial lines brokers, the UFI breakdown in the June 2026 APRA data is the most operationally relevant section.
Of the $1.16 billion placed with UFIs in the half, fire and industrial special risks (ISR) accounted for $793 million, or 68% of total UFI premium. Singapore-domiciled underwriters supplied most of that capacity, writing $694 million, or 60% of all UFI premium for the period. The UK followed at $280 million, or 24%.
The customised exemption data adds more detail. It captures placements where brokers cited specific reasons for going offshore, including availability of cover and terms. For fire and ISR, customised exemption placements totalled $178 million across 190 new or renewed policies, at an average premium of $936,100. That is nearly three times the overall customised exemption average of $313,500 per policy across 1,118 policies.
Professional indemnity accounted for $59 million in customised exemption placements across 137 policies, an average of $423,000 each. Public and product liability generated $26 million across 211 policies.
The scale of offshore dependency in fire and ISR is not new, but it has not narrowed. Separate APRA quarterly data for the September 2025 quarter showed the net reinsurance expense for the fire and ISR class reached $833 million, against net claims of $538 million. Because net claims are measured after reinsurance recoveries, the comparison shows how much of the class's risk insurers are passing to reinsurers, and at what cost, relative to the claims they retain.
That cost structure squeezes domestic underwriting margins, particularly on large and complex commercial property risks. Brokers placing fire and ISR under customised exemptions are, on average, handling risks worth close to $1 million in premium, well above the market average, where domestic terms or availability fall short.
Australia is one of Lloyd's largest markets globally.
Lloyd's CEO Patrick Tiernan, in the market's H1 2026 results statement, noted the global market is navigating a period of structural disorder, with physical, cyber, financial and geopolitical risks compounding simultaneously. "Growth must be accretive and margins adequate. We will not pursue growth or premium for its own sake," Tiernan said.
Three things stand out in the June 2026 data.
First, premium is growing but flowing through fewer active firms. Second, the offshore market, and Singapore in particular, continues to absorb the largest and most complex fire and ISR risks that domestic capacity does not fully service. Third, the population of intermediaries writing UFI and Lloyd's business is contracting, even as total market premium rises.
For commercial property brokers, the data is a practical prompt. Understanding where capacity is coming from for large property risks, and why, is not a background consideration. It is the job.
