The publication of the London Matters 2026 report confirmed what many of us working in the specialty re/insurance ecosystem already know: London remains the world’s leading centre for complex risk transfer. But its position is not without challenge; with an ageing demographic deepening London’s talent challenge, and other re/insurance hubs’ faster growth rates.
The London Market is a major asset to the UK. The latest edition of the report again highlights the scale of its contribution: £61 billion added to the UK GDP in 2024, equivalent to the UK defence spending to put the number in perspective. And that accounts for 37% of the City of London’s GDP – we can officially stop feeling like the poor relation to other financial services!
Over the past decade the market’s income has doubled – it now totals $187 billion, an increase of 17% since 2022. It retains the lion’s share of the global Marine, Aviation and Energy market, and its share of the global reinsurance market in 2024 hit an all-time high of 8.7%.
London’s strength is underpinned both by its scale and its unique make-up: an unmatched concentration of expertise, depth of capital, world‑leading brokers and carriers, and the ability to craft solutions for “every conceivable type of risk,” from traditional sectors to frontier technologies.
But the report also warns that the pace of growth is higher in other jurisdictions, including Bermuda and the US Excess & Surplus (E&S) market. So, if we want to retain our global position where will growth come from in the future?
The 2026 report offers a clear message about where these opportunities for growth can be found. It highlights a growing demand for re/insurance across a range of emerging and evolving risk classes, including:
However, unlocking this growth requires more capital. Programmes like London Bridge 2, which has grown 150% per annum to reach US$1.9bn of deployed capital, show the scale of what is possible when the market collaborates with policymakers to build accessible, efficient capital pathways. But we can do more to make the UK ILS regime work more efficiently. To remain the global hub for risk innovation, London must make itself the destination of choice for investors seeking transparent, scalable access to insurance‑linked returns.
Financial capital is important, but without human capital the market cannot operate. The most sobering element of this year’s report is the scale of the growing demographic shift. Over the next decade, the proportion of workers in the London Market aged under 30 is projected to collapse from 24% today to just 7%. As the market continues to soften and businesses look for savings, the recruitment of graduates and apprentices is often one of the first things to be cut. And the signs are already there: job postings on the London Insurance Life jobs board fell 18% year‑on‑year in 2025.
This should set alarm bells ringing. We cannot fuel long‑term growth without fully trained, highly skilled people, and those skills take years to develop. No amount of AI adoption, workflow optimisation, or automation will change the fundamental truth that insurance is a people industry, built on judgement, innovation, and deep specialist knowledge.
If anything, the increased adoption and implementation of technology in our day-to-day processes should increase the need to hire younger people digital natives – if my insurance provider is rolling out an AI system, I want it being run by a 25-year-old, not a 65-year-old!
We also need an intelligent debate on how we hand on the baton. Our older professional colleagues have a wealth of expertise and experience that we don’t want to lose when they retire. So, managing the retirement process is as important as ensuring they have someone to hand it onto.
The 2026 London Matters report celebrates our global leadership but also rings some alarm bells. We have decades of strong performance behind us, but the years ahead requires bold, coordinated action. If we can chart the right course, London can continue to shape the future of risk transfer for the next generation.
