Around 44 per cent of the people licensed to conduct general insurance business in Australia did not actually place any general insurance business in the first six months of this year, according to new data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
The data, contained in APRA's intermediated general insurance statistical analysis, outlined the dimensions of the general insurance broking market in Australia, revealing there were 1,549 "intermediaries" licensed to conduct general insurance business.
It said that of these, 850 (55 per cent) had placed business directly with underwriters during the six-month period while only 22 (one per cent) had placed all their business directly through other Australian intermediaries.
The APRA data pointed to the dominance of Australian based insurers, revealing that 96 per cent of intermediaries had placed business with APRA-regulated general insurers, with 24 per cent placing business with Lloyd's underwriters and 8 per cent placing business with "unauthorised foreign insurers".
The data revealed intermediaries invoiced $7.9 billion in premium during the six-month periods, with 85 per cent of this amount being placed with APRA-authorised general insurers.
