Top 50 Insurers: Aviva consolidates top spot thanks to DLG amalgamation

This month (October 2025), Insurance Times has published its 2025 edition of the annual and exclusive Top 50 Insurers report in collaboration with market intelligence firm Insurance DataLab – this supplement is the UK general insurance (UKGI) market’s only comprehensive ranking of the biggest and best underwriters across the UK, Gibraltar and Lloyd’s.

The anticipation ahead of this year’s publication has been palpable, as insurers consider whether they have climbed the coveted ranking, maintained their position amid tumultuous market conditions, or seen a slide down the table as softening rates bolster competition and put pressure on carriers’ books.

Although there have been some year-on-year changes for 2025, pole position at the head of the Top 50 Insurers table remains in the hands of Amanda Blanc’s Aviva, where tactical M&A announced at the end of 2024 has reaped an impressive 62% uptick in the organisation’s gross written premium (GWP) – amounting to around double the GWP of second placed Axa, according to Insurance DataLab.

In December 2024, Aviva confirmed that it had agreed to buy rival insurer Direct Line Group (DLG) for £3.7bn, with the transaction officially completing in July 2025.

The deal has massively bolstered Aviva’s coffers. In 2024’s Top 50 Insurers report, the organisation recorded GWP of £6,671m. For 2025, this number has skyrocketed to £12,720m – with Insurance DataLab calculating that DLG’s acquisition has added around £4,341m to Aviva’s financial tally.

During the insurer’s half-year trading update in August 2025, Blanc told journalists: “We see plenty of opportunities and with our track record in personal lines, we have real confidence that we’ll unlock the full potential of the combined business.”

This is the second consecutive year Aviva has employed an acquisitional growth strike – in July 2024, the insurer completed its purchase of insurance platform Probitas, which included the tenancy rights to Syndicate 1492.

This spending spree saw Aviva leap frog to the top of the table in 2024’s report – and its latest buy has further cemented its leadership of UKGI when it comes to scale and clout.

DLG’s move into the Aviva fold has also left an opening in the top five of 2025’s report, with the personal lines focused business occupying fourth place in last year’s edition. Climbing up to fill this void for 2025 is Intact Insurance, known as RSA prior to 6 October 2025.

This jump up the Top 50 Insurers table is a result of the insurer’s purchase of NIG and FarmWeb from DLG, which completed in 2024. Last year, Intact Insurance did not even rank inside the top 10 of this annual list, so its escalation to fourth place in 2025 is a dramatic improvement for UK and international chief executive Ken Norgrove and his team.

Insurance DataLab’s unique analysis has not just ranked UKGI’s best performing underwriters – Insurance Times’ Top 50 Insurers 2025 report also contains exclusive and thought provoking analysis of our marketplace to help inform decision-making and drive trend awareness.

For example, the market intelligence firm has been able to dig deeper into commercial and personal lines profitability comparisons since reporting requirements changed under the post-Brexit Solvency UK regime.

This has subsequently highlighted that property – and in particular commercial property – is a “bright spot of profitability”, according to Insurance DataLab, while the motor market is unhappily in loss-making territory across both personal and commercial arenas. Read the full piece about this subject here.

Insurance DataLab has additionally used its data points to divulge the difference size and specialism can make on underwriting performance and trends, as well as reveal the success stories of its 2025 Underwriting Gold Awards.

Reviewing this year’s final insurer ranking has been fascinating. The pace of growth across the market is unprecedented, with some carriers slipping down the Top 50 Insurers 2025 table despite making sizeable improvements to their GWP figures. Of course, an important driver of some of this growth is acquisitions – as is demonstrated by Aviva’s continued rise to fame over the last two years.

This consolidation of the consolidators means that UKGI is more fluid than ever before when it comes to the market’s movers and shakers. And while 2025’s insurer ranking is now set in stone, it is all to play for come 2026.