The global market for insurance broking saw significant growth in 2021, recording a revenue of around US$137.6 billion (about NZ$213.25 billion) from total fees and commissions earned, a report from marketing consultancy Insuramore revealed.
This is an increase of about US$122.3 billion from 2020, amounting to a growth rate of almost 12.5% or about 8% when adjusted for inflation.
Around US$62 billion came from commercial P&C, while around US$13.2 billion was from private P&C. Additionally, employee benefits plus life and health insurance made up $US46.4 billion of the market value, while reinsurance and wholesale accounted for US$5.5 billion and US$10.5 billion, respectively.
According to Insuramore, the 2021 increase in the global broking market was driven by several factors. Growth for the commercial P&C and wholesale segments was driven by a rise in underlying premium rates. On the other hand, growth in the private P&C and life and health segments was due to the shift to digital and advice-led distribution.
The following groups, meanwhile, led each of the five segments in 2021:
The top 20 groups in Insuramore’s rankings achieved an aggregate growth rate of 14.6% in 2021, driven in part by their M&A activity. Alliant’s top performance, for example, was largely due to its acquisition of Confie, said Insuramore. Overall, these 20 groups were said to have controlled 50.6% of total global fees and commissions in 2021.
“Looking ahead, it will be apposite to see whether a continuing stream of M&A activity causes the worldwide market to consolidate in 2022 or if the dynamic growth of some smaller and medium-sized competitors causes the share of the top 20 groups to hold at just over a half of global broking revenues,” said Insuramore.
