For the first time in about 150 years – and if you don’t count the Lloyd’s market – the top 20 Australian general insurance companies no longer contain a single British company. Peter Caldwell, Chairman of Deloitte’s National Insurance Industry Group, said the latest Top 20 ratings show the top five groups now account for almost 75% of all business written by the Top 20. “Only seven years ago, when the market was more fragmentary, the top five groups accounted for a mere third of Top 20 business.”

Towering above all its competitors is IAG, whose total premium income is approaching the combined business of its four closest rivals – all but one Australian-owned, now that Promina has gone to Australian interests.

The Top 20 are:

1. IAG/CGU gross premium revenue $6.08 billion
2. Suncorp $2.018 billion
3. Promina $1.9 billion
4. Allianz $1.83 billion
5. QBE $1.44 billion
6. Zurich $735 million
7. Lloyd’s $690 million
8. Wesfarmers/Lumley $606 million
9. ING (Mercantile Mutual) $544 million
10. AIG $386 million
11. Ace $302 million
12. RACQ $279 million
13. RACWA $264 million
14. Chubb $184 million
15. Gerling $181 million
16. Westpac $150 million
17. Elders $149 million
18. Commonwealth $132 million
19. GE Insurance $115 million
20. Catholic Church Insurances $111 million

Mr Caldwell said two bancassurance-aligned insurers, Westpac and Commonwealth, are consolidating their positions. “While they are niche players, and relatively small, their profitability is the envy of most,” he said. “Their returns on net assets have, over each of the past three years, been consistently over 30%, reaching 43% in the case of Commonwealth in 2000.”

He also noted that American insurers are now starting to make their presence felt in the Top 20 through AIG, Ace, Chubb and now GE Insurance. “Significantly, they are largely niche players, and they obviously mean business.”