Europe's managing general agent (MGA) market grew about 15% in 2025 to top $23 billion in gross written premium, outstripping US growth of 7% as carriers leaned more heavily on the channel to deploy capacity, Howden Re said in its second annual European MGA report.
The reinsurance broker has called the segment a "sleeping giant," pointing to a five-year compound annual growth rate of roughly 23%. European MGA premium has expanded by more than 20% in nearly every year since 2019, its research showed.
Global MGA premium reached about $160 billion (€142 billion) last year, up 10% and a step down from the 13% rise logged between 2023 and 2024. The US accounted for $122 billion of that total; Europe delivered $23 billion.
Howden Re tied Europe's faster clip to a smaller starting base and rising carrier reliance on MGAs to access specialty risk.
The US market is no laggard, however. Earlier 2024 research from Conning found US MGA direct premiums written had themselves climbed 16% year-on-year to an estimated $114.1 billion, lifted by underwriting talent migration from carriers, artificial intelligence adoption and growth in excess and surplus lines.
Headline numbers mask how concentrated Europe's MGA market has become. Howden Re estimates about 250 "scale-ready and established" MGAs – independent firms with €25 million or more in gross written premium – account for roughly 30% of the European market but generate between 70% and 85% of revenue.
Enrico Bertagna and Tobias Andersson of Howden Re said the segment was entering a new phase, with MGAs shifting away from fragmented multi-carrier setups toward six to eight strategic capacity partners once they cross the €50 million GWP threshold.
The UK remained Europe's largest MGA market at €8.35 billion, followed by Benelux at €3.75 billion, Italy at €3.29 billion, France at €1.31 billion, Germany at €1.13 billion, the Nordics at €765 million and Iberia at €460 million.
Benelux, Germany and Italy each grew between 5% and 7%, while France advanced about 9% on the back of its insurtech ecosystem. Iberia's premiums nearly doubled year-on-year and the Nordics edged up roughly 3%.
Italy's figure was revised up to €3.2 billion, with AXA-owned Prima still representing about half that market.
Specialty business continues to dominate the mix. Cyber, trade credit and marine are still developing, while professional indemnity and directors and officers liability are approaching saturation. Consolidation is gathering pace at the top end, with more than 10 to 15 new high-quality MGAs launched since 2024.
Leading diversified specialty MGA platforms have recently cleared at roughly 15 to 16 times EBITDA, with more focused firms pricing one to two turns below. Multiline transactions averaged 15.4 times EBITDA, against 14.3 times for monoline deals.
Howden Re said buyers were weighting quality, earnings sustainability and depth of capability more heavily than growth. The market, it concluded, is becoming "filtered for quality" – top performers drawing capital while weaker platforms grapple with margin pressure and rising costs.
