For the first time ever, there is a definitive ranking of the world’s top 150 broking groups, thanks to new research from Finaccord.
Finaccord has ranked the world's top 150 broking groups by revenues earned from commercial non-life (P&C) insurance, excluding revenues from personal lines, employee benefits, wholesale insurance and reinsurance.
In total, the top 150 brokers earned revenues of $28.5 billion from this activity in a global market estimated to have been worth $48.5 billion in total in 2013, thereby meaning that they accounted collectively for 58.8 per cent of this total.
“The strong presence of North American brokers in the ranking is primarily due to the huge size of the U.S. and Canadian commercial property and casualty markets and the fact that brokers (including independent agents) dominate distribution in both the U.S. and Canada,” said Bernd Bergmann, a consultant at Finaccord. “In addition, a number of large brokers in North America are driving their growth through acquisitions while the majority of their counterparts in Europe rely more on organic growth.”
All figures are in U.S. dollars.
Aon was the largest competitor with commercial lines revenues of $6.1 billion worldwide in 2013 and it was followed by Marsh at $5.1 billion. Overall, and as shown in the following ranking, the top 15 broking groups by this measure together earned revenues of $20.9 billion (or 43.1 per cent) of the worldwide total.
Finaccord’s research also shows that across the world’s top 150 commercial non-life insurance broking groups, 67 (44.7 per cent) were headquartered in the U.S. with a further 24 based in the U.K., 14 in France, 12 in Germany and eight in Canada.
For the majority of the 150 brokers in the ranking, commercial non-life insurance is the most important source of revenues. Twenty-two of the 150 groups earned more than 90 per cent of their total revenues from commercial lines in 2013 while for 122 this activity made up at least half of their revenues. (continued.)
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In fact, as an unweighted average across all 150 groups, commercial lines broking revenues accounted for 64.4 per cent of total revenues.
“While most brokers are also active in other areas, including personal insurance, employee benefits, wholesale insurance and reinsurance,” said Bergmann, “their main focus typically lies in selling property and casualty insurance products to commercial customers.”
Editor’s note: OAMPS Insurance Brokers, ranked 15th in the following table, was acquired in April 2014 by fifth-placed Arthur J. Gallagher & Co; however, it is included in the table as it still operated independently of any other broking group during 2013 itself.
