Top 50 Insurers 2026: Commercial lines retain underwriting edge as motor returns to profit

Commercial lines business continues to outperform personal lines across both motor and property insurance, according to the latest analysis of Solvency and Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) by market intelligence firm Insurance DataLab.

Changes introduced under the post-Brexit Solvency UK regime have provided greater detail on where insurers are making – and losing – money, including separate disclosures for commercial and personal lines business within the motor and property insurance markets.

The latest figures reviewed by Insurance DataLab show a significant improvement in motor underwriting performance, with both sides of the market returning to profitability in 2025/26.

Across the motor market as a whole, insurers reported an aggregate combined operating ratio (COR) of 97.5%, an eight percentage point improvement on the 105.5% recorded a year earlier.

This improvement came from both sides of the COR, with the aggregate loss ratio falling 5.5 percentage points to 72.5%, while the expense ratio improved by 2.5 percentage points to 25%.

This marks the motor insurance market’s first aggregate underwriting profit since 2021/22, when insurers reported a COR of 97.4%.

Following this past profitable peak, performance deteriorated sharply in the following two years, with the COR for this class rising to 111.2% in 2022/23 before worsening to a high of 113.4% in 2023/24.

While both personal and commercial motor returned to profit in the most recent reporting period, commercial lines delivered the stronger result of the two.

Commercial motor insurers reported an aggregate COR of 95.9% in 2025/26, compared with 97.9% for personal motor – a two percentage point advantage following near identical results a year earlier.

The driver behind this improvement was claims performance, with commercial motor reporting a 64.8% loss ratio for the last year – some 9.5 percentage points better than the 74.3% recorded across personal motor.

Commercial motor insurance has also cut its loss ratio by 8.3 percentage points over the last 12 months. The corresponding improvement in personal motor insurance was 4.9 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the personal motor insurance market continues to hold a significant advantage when it comes to expenses. Its aggregate expense ratio improved to 23.6% for 2025/26, compared with 31% across commercial motor – a gap of 7.4 percentage points.

Profits in property

The picture for property insurance is somewhat different.

Unlike motor, the wider property insurance market was already comfortably profitable a year ago and remains so in 2025/26 – although margins have narrowed.

The aggregate property COR across both commercial and personal lines increased by 1.9 percentage points to 91.1%, compared with 89.2% in the previous reporting period.

This deterioration came despite an improvement in claims performance. The aggregate loss ratio improved from 54.6% to 52.9%, but this was more than offset by a 3.6 percentage point increase in the expense ratio to 38.3%.

There is also a much more pronounced split between commercial and personal lines in the property field than there is in motor.

Commercial property insurance reported an aggregate COR of 84.7% for 2025/26, compared with 99.1% across personal property – a gap of 14.4 percentage points.

Once again, claims performance is the principal differentiator.

Commercial property insurers achieved an aggregate loss ratio of just 45.7%, compared with 61.1% for personal property – giving the commercial market a 15.4 percentage point advantage.

But commercial property no longer holds the upper hand on expenses.

Its expense ratio increased to 39% for 2025/26, marginally above the 38% reported by personal property insurers.

Indeed, rising expenses have offset much of the benefit from improving claims performance across commercial property over the past year. Its loss ratio improved by 3.7 percentage points, but the expense ratio increased by 4.8 percentage points, leaving the market’s COR 1.2 percentage points higher than a year ago.

Personal property experienced a similar, although less pronounced, trend. Its loss ratio was broadly flat at 61.1%, while a three percentage point increase in its expense ratio pushed the COR up by 2.6 percentage points to 99.1%.

The longer-term property insurance picture nevertheless remains considerably stronger than it was only a few years ago.

The overall market reported loss-making CORs in each year from 2021/22 to 2023/24, before returning to underwriting profit with a COR of 89.2% in 2024/25.

The latest 91.1% result therefore represents some deterioration, but also marks a second consecutive year of aggregate underwriting profitability.

Claims crux

Taken together, the latest results highlight the different routes being taken to underwriting profit across commercial and personal lines.

Personal motor continues to demonstrate a clear cost advantage, supported by a considerably larger premium base. Yet commercial motor’s stronger claims performance is now sufficient enough to outweigh the expense gap and deliver a better COR.

The same dynamic is even clearer in property insurance, where commercial insurers have maintained a substantial underwriting advantage despite operating with a slightly higher expense ratio.

For both markets, the figures underline that scale alone does not determine underwriting profitability.

Indeed, the more mass market nature of personal lines has led to materially higher claims, despite personal lines insurers having the advantage when it comes to expenses.