PowerPlace issued quote number 2.5 million this week

Fifty-eight per cent of brokers have reported an increase in the level of commercial insurance they trade electronically.

In the survey of 400 brokers by PowerPlace, 38% said e-trading had remained the same, and only 4% said it had decreased.

This week PowerPlace crossed the 2.5 million quote threshold for commercial lines. The online marketplace has written almost half a million commercial policies for brokers in the UK and Northern Ireland since it began trading in 2009.

The survey also revealed that 58% of brokers use PowerPlace, which was bought by Open GI seven months ago, to generate an online quote in the first instance.

Chief executive Nick Giddings said: “The shift in commercial lines trading online is steadily increasing year-on-year. As PowerPlace has matured over the past four years we have seen an increasing demand for brokers wanting to implement an online strategy to serve their SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] customer base.

“I am delighted that PowerPlace is becoming the natural fit for our brokers. Our latest survey results have provided us with a good range of market intelligence to help us continually improve PowerPlace and offer a solid range of products to the insurance industry.

Earlier this year Open GI launched eBroker and mBroker for PowerPlace to allow commercial brokers to add a quote-and-buy function on their own website.