MGA model increasingly attractive in London market

The UK’s managing general agent (MGA) segment looks set to become an ever more popular feature of the London market, according to a survey of more than 100 insurers and agents conducted by law firm Clyde & Co.

The law firm, which conducted interviews with leading MGAs and insurance carriers, found that the majority of carriers expect to increase MGA capacity this year.

Both MGAs and carriers believe the sector has become more competitive, and that it is now harder to set up an MGA than ever before.

This comes as the research demonstrates that Lloyd’s is no longer viewed as the best location to develop MGA business due to rising regulatory and compliance burdens.

Jennette Newman, partner at Clyde & Co, commented: “The entrepreneurial spirit of MGAs adds tremendous value to the market, but the drive for efficiencies in the company market, combined with regulatory hurdles and a lack of capacity at Lloyd’s, has seen MGAs come under increasing scrutiny to ensure that they are delivering on their promises to efficiently reach new customers in new markets in a way that delivers profitability for all parties involved.”

MGA startups

A new method for setting up MGAs has arrived in the form of cloud-based digital insurance platform INSTANDA, which provides the technical capabilities necessary to launch and run a new MGA.

Its new service, IMGA, aims to prioritise speed and efficiency, with INSTANDA claiming the platform reduces launch time to around 10 weeks, from initial contact to underwriting.

It enables and manages a range of services, including product distribution, submission management, policy management, renewals and first notification of loss processing.

INSTANDA chief executive officer Tim Hardcastle said: “We enable insurance organisations to build, launch and manage in real time insurance products without coding. The MGA sector’s relevance and importance to the insurance market continues to grow, so extending our capabilities to this audience is a natural next step.”

“IMGA enables fast set up and access to new markets, as well as streamlining operations by digitising processes from front to back; you are in control, changing product structures, adding new features to gain market advantage, all at no additional cost.”

Mark Dugdale