Provego Underwriting has been named the best MGA in UKGI in our 2026 MGA Performance Report, published in association with the Managing General Agents’ Association (MGAA).
The MGA achieved an overall Insurance DataLab MGA Rating of 71.9%, improving on last year’s score of 69.0%, to secure its second consecutive Gold Award and finish top of the rankings for the first time.
Based on Insurance DataLab’s proprietary methodology, MGAs are rated across three key pillars – profitability, growth and productivity – with the top-performing firms receiving an Insurance DataLab Gold Award.
Joining Provego Underwriting among this year’s Gold Award winners are CFC Underwriting (70.6%), Ambridge Europe (68.2%), NBS Underwriting (66.0%), MPR Underwriting (64.8%) and Euna Underwriting (63.0%).
The report also paints a picture of a UK MGA market entering a new era as firms adapt to more challenging trading conditions. The average Insurance DataLab MGA Rating fell to 51.0%, down from 52.9% last year, reflecting softer market conditions, increasing competition and growing pressure on profitability and growth.
Despite these challenges, the sector continued to demonstrate remarkable resilience.
Productivity remained strong at 56.1%, supported by a 12.2% increase in average revenue per employee to more than £203,000, while staff costs fell to 40.0% of revenue. Aggregate revenues across the 39 MGAs analysed also increased by 8.0% to £1.2bn, demonstrating that growth continues despite a more challenging environment.
The market Profitability Rating was more muted at 47.0% – a 1.6 percentage point decrease on the previous year – after reporting an aggregate operating profit of £76.6m. This is a 37.0% drop on the previous year’s £121.6m, although it is important to recognise that this was impacted by one firm reporting a £44.8m drop in operating profit. Without this outlier, the aggregate figure would have been down by just 0.2%.
These results come after several years of exceptional growth, but firms are now operating in a more challenging environment where sustainable success increasingly depends on operational discipline, profitability and efficiency.
While growth has become harder to achieve and margins have come under pressure, this year’s results demonstrate the resilience of the sector. MGAs continue to invest in their businesses while maintaining impressive levels of productivity, showing they remain well positioned for long-term success.
Writing in the report, MGAA chief executive Mike Keating said: “Looking at the report’s findings, you can immediately see the impact of the softening rate environment with revenue growth, of the 39 MGAs sampled, at less than half of the previous year’s figure. This reduction also reflects the sector’s underwriting discipline, and the need to protect capital when rates in some product lines went into freefall.
“As the report highlights, while the headline operating profit shows a significant reduction, this is driven by one particular organisation who undertook significant transformation over the past 12 months, impacting their profit. When excluded, operating profit remained similar to the previous year.
“In addition, many MGAs have invested in their businesses over the past 12 months, both in digital/AI transformation and the recruitment of exceptional underwriting talent, to capitalise on the emerging opportunities over the next planning period.”
Download the full report
You can see the full results of this analysis in our 2026 MGA Performance Report, available to download for free here. The report covers market analysis of the results broken down by size of MGA, and delves into the finer details of the data that underpins this year’s cohort of Gold Award winners.
Subscribers to our market intelligence platform also benefit from access to the underlying data for all MGAs, including full P&L and balance sheet analysis, as well as data relating to customer outcomes, claims and complaints.
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