Ten insurers now account for 72% of essentially the most aggressive positions in motor on value comparability web sites, and 81% in house. That focus has intensified considerably over the previous two years, and dealer pricing has not reversed it. Brokers decreased premiums by 12% in motor and 15% in house over the previous yr, roughly double the cuts made by direct suppliers, but continued to lose aggressive share.
The shift in house insurance coverage tells the story most clearly. Two years in the past, the cut up between direct and dealer suppliers within the prime 5 positions was roughly even. By February 2026 it had moved to 68% in favour of direct suppliers for annual premiums and 70% for instalment premiums. In motor, direct suppliers now maintain round 74% of annual top-five positions. Dealer pricing has change into extra aggressive throughout each strains. Aggressive share has not adopted.
Including extra merchandise to PCW panels has not modified the result both. In motor, round 181 merchandise have been quoting on one comparability platform in February 2026, of which 104 have been broker-fulfilled and 77 direct. Regardless of that quantity benefit, dealer aggressive share has continued to fall. In house the place has shifted additional nonetheless, with direct merchandise now outnumbering brokers on three of the 4 foremost PCWs. And even on the platform the place brokers nonetheless lead by quantity, broker-only merchandise generate top-five aggressive share of beneath 3%. The info is unambiguous: panel breadth shouldn’t be the mechanism by which aggressive positions are gained.
The report, ‘Competing The place It Counts: The Dealer Alternative in Private Strains’ makes the argument that the mainstream PCW market shouldn’t be the place the dealer benefit is strongest, and that the info is exact about the place it’s.
Client Intelligence’s segmental evaluation, drawn from Each day Worth Benchmarking information throughout all main PCWs from February 2024 to February 2026, identifies the precise buyer profiles the place dealer aggressive share is holding and the place it’s beneath essentially the most stress. The sample is constant throughout motor and residential: brokers maintain their floor the place danger is complicated and prospects are tougher to position, together with older drivers, these with claims histories, non-standard properties, and prospects whose circumstances require cautious underwriting. It’s within the easy, normal segments the place direct suppliers dominate by design. The total segmental breakdown, masking age, claims historical past, property sort, and danger complexity throughout each strains, is about out within the report.
The report makes the case that as direct suppliers sharpen their give attention to normal dangers, a definite phase of the market turns into extra reliant on brokers, and that the underwriters who construct real urge for food for these dangers, with the fitting merchandise and pricing behind them, are those greatest positioned to assist brokers in competing there successfully.
“The comparability market has drawn a transparent line between the dangers direct suppliers are constructed to win and the dangers they don’t seem to be. The info on this report exhibits the place that line sits, which prospects sit on both facet of it, and what brokers and underwriters have to do to compete successfully for those that matter most.”
IAN HUGHES, CHAIR, CONSUMER INTELLIGENCE