Intermediation sector
Insurance intermediation: a dynamic, innovative and competitive sector
The insurance intermediation sector is characterised by the presence of many intermediaries. The majority of these are SME scale undertakings with a local focus.
Reputation is an important factor that can only be built up over time. It can potentially be lost in an instant, and thus requires on-going attention and maintenance.
Banks, internet operators and direct writers compete head-on with insurance intermediaries.
Companies in every sector of the economy work with intermediaries to find solutions for their risks in the national, European or international market.
Thanks to intermediaries, the European insurance market can export its capacity and know-how worldwide. Intermediaries make insurance more accessible to consumers and smaller businesses. Thanks to intermediaries more people and businesses are well insured.
Insurance intermediaries: mostly SME-sized companies employing altogether many hundreds of thousands of employees
Broadly speaking, in the EU, the insurance intermediation sector is divided into three major sub-sectors:
- The (few) global and multinational business insurance intermediaries, which serve major multinational and domestic firms, and provide a wide range of services to these clients in addition to the traditional brokerage services. They also serve a large part of the SME client market.
- The major domestic intermediaries that provide services to larger and medium-sized companies. They also serve some of the national branches or subsidiaries of multinationals and small companies. Such intermediaries are likely to be present throughout the country.
- The small private intermediaries which focus mainly on serving the “small” end of the business spectrum and the personal lines market occasionally serve larger companies on a relationship basis.
Some of the intermediaries which fall into the latter two categories belong to international networks. These arrangements allow smaller intermediaries to offer products to their clients in several countries.
Insurance intermediaries in Europe (London Economics report) ►
