Defaqto's newly announced Insurers of the Year for 2026–27 are worth reading as more than a marketing exercise.
Behind the winners, Aviva (car), Lloyds Bank (home), InsureandGo (travel) and Sainsbury's Bank (pet), sits a detailed customer experience dataset that lines up closely with where the FCA has signalled it will focus attention this year. For brokers placing business across these lines, the results offer an early steer on which categories carry the greatest regulatory risk, and which carry the clearest growth opportunity.
The awards, announced on August 1, followed an assessment of 107 insurance brands using Defaqto's two-part methodology, which weights product quality and customer service equally, drawing on research from more than 26,000 consumers. A further 16 providers received Highly Commended status.
Travel was the only category where Defaqto recorded declining customer experience across the board this year, with the sharpest falls at renewal and in complaints handling.
That finding lands at a pointed moment. According to law firm HFW's April 2026 review of the FCA's regulatory priorities, the regulator has named reviewing how travel insurers underwrite cover for customers with pre-existing mental health conditions as an explicit 2026 focus.
Brokers placing travel business should treat this as a prompt to check now whether panel insurers are among those likely to face FCA questions on underwriting decisions for vulnerable customers, rather than waiting for a client complaint to surface the issue.
Home insurance was largely flat this year, with a dip in complaints handling offsetting small gains elsewhere.
The FCA has separately flagged improving home contents insurance uptake among social renters as a 2026 priority, an access gap that a static service picture does little to close. Lloyds Bank's win in this category comes as parent group Lloyds Banking Group reported, in its half-year results published on July 30, 2026, a 19% rise in underlying other income for its Insurance, Pensions and Investments division, alongside a top-three UK market position in home insurance across 10 million IP&I customers. Brokers serving social housing providers or renters have a genuine talking point here: insurers with strong Defaqto home service scores are better placed to withstand FCA scrutiny on this specific access issue.
According to law firm Clifford Chance's analysis published in May 2026, the FCA's thematic review TR24/2, first published in August 2024 and updated in December 2025, found that many general insurance firms were still failing to demonstrate fair value, and warned that firms unable to evidence this consistently can expect direct intervention.
Against that backdrop, a broker recommending or placing with a Defaqto winner gains an independent, non-insurer-generated data point to sit alongside their own suitability and fair value reasoning, useful documentation if a broker's own Consumer Duty file is ever tested.
"The Defaqto Insurer of the Year Awards recognise providers that perform strongly across both price and product quality, because the awards are earned rather than entered and combine detailed product analysis with the real experiences of thousands of insurance customers," said Dipesh Sanghrajka, head of product at Defaqto.
Sainsbury's Bank's pet insurance win comes in a market that remains structurally under-penetrated. According to Mintel's UK Pet Insurance Market Report, published in July 2026, nearly half of UK pet owners still carry no insurance, even as veterinary cost inflation continues to push up claims. Separate data from Pearson Ham Group's Pet Insurance Pricing Index showed premiums rose 0.9% quarter on quarter in its most recent reading, following an earlier period of decline, while IBISWorld puts the total UK pet insurance market at approximately £2.2 billion for 2026.
For brokers, that combination of low penetration and rising need makes pet cover a credible cross-sell to build a proposition around, with the Defaqto results offering a steer on which providers to place with.
Aviva's car insurance win comes as data published by the Association of British Insurers in April 2026 shows average comprehensive premiums holding broadly flat at £560 in the first quarter of the year, even as claims costs climb. Insurers paid out £2.9 billion in motor claims in the quarter, according to the same data, with vehicle repair costs alone reaching £1.9 billion, driven by the rising cost and complexity of repairing vehicles fitted with modern sensors and cameras.
That Defaqto recorded improvements across every car insurance touchpoint this year, despite that pressure, suggests insurers here are protecting service standards even as claims inflation persists.
This year's awards are best understood as a map of where insurer service is weakening just as the FCA is watching most closely, travel and home in particular, and where under-served demand offers brokers room to grow, most notably in pet insurance.
For brokers reviewing panels ahead of the next renewal cycle, that map is arguably more useful than the winners' badges themselves.
