Global: 100 insurer groups command 61% of total gross direct premiums in 2022
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Nov 2023
According to global rankings updated recently by Insuramore, and across life/annuity, health and P&C (nonlife) business combined, 638 insurer groups worldwide were ‘insurer billionaires’ in 2022 having achieved gross direct premiums for the year of more than $1bn. Insuramore found that 100 of these insurer groups controlled almost 61% of the global total gross direct premiums in 2022.
Broken down by segment, there were 304 such insurer billionaires for life/annuity business, 220 for health insurance and 275 for P&C insurance. Concerning the latter segment, 158 insurer groups exceeded $1bn in gross direct premiums for commercial P&C lines, 153 for private P&C lines, 119 for motor insurance and 48 for home insurance. Yet, these numbers sum up to more than the 638 insurer billionaires across all classes because some groups achieved more than $1bn in gross direct premiums in more than one segment. Moreover, if reinsurance assumed is added to the calculation, the number of insurer billionaires in 2022 rises by a further 20 to 658.
Insuramore report noted that 32 groups became insurer billionaires during 2022 having been below the threshold of $1bn in gross direct activity in the previous year. These include the following:
- fast-growing commercial P&C insurers such as Atrium Underwriting Group, Kinsale Capital Group and Skyward Specialty;
- reinsurers expanding rapidly into direct business such as RenaissanceRe and SiriusPoint;
- insurer groups based in countries characterised by strong underlying market growth such as Seguros Bolívar, State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan and Wafa Assurance.
Health insurance specialist UnitedHealth Group extended its position as the world’s largest insurer group in 2022 and had gross direct premiums of about 80% more than Allianz, the group ranked second on this measure. However, these were the only two groups with a market share of total worldwide insurance activity of more than 2%.
Overall, and within a global insurance market worth around $7tn in gross direct business in 2022, the top 20 insurer groups accounted for 28.3% of this activity, the top 100 for 60.6% of it and the top 500 for 90% of it.
The report said that for most insurer groups launched in recent years, there is still a long road to travel before they can take their place among the insurer billionaires. However, one exception is US-based Oscar Health whose rapid growth had pushed it to 200th position in the overall global ranking for 2022 (and to 54th for health insurance). M