Record numbers working in the City’s insurance market
London Market Group (LMG), a body that represents brokers and underwriters in London’s insurance market, has found that staff levels at commercial insurance and reinsurance firms in 2023 totalled 59,000, the largest figure since the body started measuring headcount in 2013.
Caroline Wagstaff, the LMG’s chief executive, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the insurance industry was a “crown jewel that no one pays attention to” in the context of fears about the health of the UK stock market.
The numbers also represent a significant recovery from the pandemic, when staff levels dipped substantially. In 2021, firms in the sector employed just 41,000 people.
According to LMG estimates, the London insurance market wrote approximately $180bn (£142bn) in gross premiums last year – double the levels of a decade ago – thanks in part to the increased threat that climate change and other global pose to big business.
“The brokers tell us they are seeing more business coming to London. They are busier,” Wagstaff added. “It’s where people bring the difficult stuff.”
Wagstaff’s sentiment was reflected in the latest results of corporate insurance’s biggest players. Last year, Lloyd’s of London—the main insurance market in the capital—had its best underwriting results since 2007, and big international players—like Japan’s Mitsui Suminoto—have also pledged to invest more in London.
The London insurance market now makes up just over 25 per cent of Canada’s economic output, but Wagstaff still repeated her body’s recent call for more light-touch regulation to aid innovation.
“People have choices [over where to buy insurance], and everyone needs to be alive to that, and think how we can make [London] a positive choice,” she said.
The numbers also come despite insurance markets’ difficulties attracting a new wave of young workers. Roughly half of employees are over 40, a higher proportion than a decade ago, something the body is seeking to rectify.
“That’s why we do the outreach, we are trying to make speciality insurance a destination career,” Wagstaff said.
Last year, the LMG also ran its first apprenticeship programme.