Global broking fees and commissions rose 12.5% last year to $US137.6 billion ($191.1 billion) driven by underlying premium rates and a further shift to digital and advice-led distribution, a report by a marketing and consultancy firm says.

UK-based Insuramore says commercial property and casualty (P&C) retail broking accounted for $US62 billion ($86 billion) and P&C private personal lines reached $US13.2 billion ($18.3 billion).

Employee benefits plus life and health totalled $US46.4 billion ($64.5 billion), reinsurance totalled $US5.5 billion ($7.6 billion) and wholesale, where the broker acts as an intermediary between carriers/underwriters and retail brokers/independent agencies, represented $US10.5 billion ($14.6 billion).

On an inflation-adjusted basis the overall increase was about 8%.

Each of the segments registered double-digit growth last year and, without adjusting for inflation, the top 20 broking groups together achieved an aggregate growth rate of 14.6%, partly supported by merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.

Marsh McLennan ranked first for total broking revenues worldwide followed by Aon, WTW, Gallagher and Chicago-based HUB, which focuses on North America.

Overall, the top 20 groups are believed to have controlled 50.6% of total global broking fees and commissions last year, Insuramore says.

Close to a half of the world’s top 300 broking groups are headquartered in the US and over 80% of those are privately owned.

“Looking ahead, it will be apposite to see whether a continuing stream of M&A activity causes the worldwide market to consolidate in 2022 or if the dynamic growth of some smaller and medium-sized competitors causes the share of the top 20 groups to hold at just over a half of global broking revenues,” the report says.