The US middle market is growing quickly, and with it the amount of customer credit risk sitting on corporate balance sheets, creating a potentially significant expansion opportunity for trade credit brokers.
Nearly 200,000 US businesses generate between $10 million and $1 billion in annual revenue, collectively accounting for one-third of private-sector GDP and employing approximately 48 million people, according to the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM). Its mid-year 2026 survey found that 82% reported year-over-year revenue gains, with average revenue growth running at 11%.
That growth is taking place against a less forgiving credit backdrop. Business bankruptcy filings increased 16.9% to 26,941 in the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, up from 23,043 a year earlier, according to the Administrative Office of the US Courts. Business filings have now more than doubled from the 12,748 recorded in the year ending June 2022.
The combination creates an opening for brokers to have a wider conversation about trade credit insurance with companies that are increasing sales but may not have the credit-management infrastructure of a large multinational.
Middle-market businesses can have substantial receivables exposures while operating with smaller internal credit teams. As companies enter new markets, add customers or extend more credit to support growth, the question of how they assess and continuously monitor those counterparties becomes more important.
NCMM found that middle-market companies are continuing to expand through new products, locations and markets, while a growing proportion are using debt financing to support that growth. Seven in 10 expect revenue to continue increasing through mid-2027.
That is where Christina Montes De Oca (pictured), CEO of Coface North America, sees a distinction between the trade credit needs of middle-market companies and those of the largest global corporations.
“In the middle market, you might see more whole turnover and an outsourcing kind of play, right?” Montes De Oca told Insurance Business. “Let me use trade credit insurance to support, augment or even strengthen my own internal credit practices and procedures.”
Large multinationals, she said, tend to approach the product more selectively. They may use trade credit insurance to exceed an internal capacity limit, share a particular exposure or facilitate more sophisticated financing structures.
“I think you see the more typical kind of trade credit insurance whole turnover solution in the middle market at scale than you would maybe in the large multinational segment,” she said.
This difference, she added, potentially broadens the broker proposition. A whole-turnover program can sit alongside information on prospective customers and ongoing monitoring of existing buyers, giving a company another layer of credit expertise without having to build all of that capability internally.
The opportunity is increasingly tied to what happens before a customer actually defaults.
Montes De Oca said businesses are dealing with rapid shifts in tariffs, trade relationships and geopolitical conditions that can alter counterparties' risk profiles quickly. The broker conversation can therefore start with how a client selects customers, establishes credit limits and identifies deterioration rather than waiting until a loss makes trade credit insurance relevant.
“Being proactive starts well before we get to the insurance decision,” she said. “It's about using information and insights and understanding where the risk is changing, where the opportunities are emerging, and determining the right response.”
Coface itself is targeting the middle market as part of its North American growth strategy. Montes De Oca said the insurer has strengthened its focus on the segment while investing in sales and marketing capabilities, business information, data and AI.
But the broader distribution opportunity reaches beyond any single carrier. With capacity widely available in North America, according to Montes De Oca, growth in the market may depend increasingly on brokers identifying companies that do not yet view trade credit as part of their core risk-management program.
“I think the brokers also have the opportunity to add value and pull together the full ecosystem of solutions,” she said.
