ETrading set to be ‘core’ component for Markel UK as it bolsters capabilities – Lee Mooney

Specialist insurer Markel UK is “progressing [its] eTrade muscle”, with the firm’s managing director – Lee Mooney – confirming that eTrading as a distribution route is “absolutely going to be the core of our business moving forward” when it comes to generating greater business volume.

In Insurance Times’ Five Star Rating Report: ETrading 2026, published in May this year ahead of trade body Biba’s annual conference, broker feedback pinpointed year-on-year improvements in Markel UK’s extranet – Markel Online – which saw the insurer’s overall star rating move from three stars to four.

This translates to a 2026 score of 3.87 versus 3.77 for 2025, ranking the insurer in seventh spot out of a field of 11 insurer extranets – an upward climb of two places compared to last year’s report.

Looking closer at the report’s figures, Markel Online recorded improvements across all five service metrics used by Insurance Times to measure performance, with the extranet now showcasing a four star result for each pillar.

The report stated: “Markel’s scores increased across all five service factors, with each area now sitting at four star level.

“The strongest [result is] in usability and trading ease, which is Markel Online’s highest scoring factor at 3.92, and also the largest year‑on‑year improvement, rising from 3.73 (+0.19). This matters because usability is typically the most ‘felt’ component of eTrading for brokers, shaping day‑to‑day workflow and repeat usage.”

For Mooney, Markel Online’s improved scores can be attributed to the insurer’s focus on removing “friction” for brokers, whether this means boosting the number of available products for digital trading, or having staff on hand to respond to queries if straight through journeys falter.

He told Insurance Times: “We’ve spent a lot of time investing in understanding what brokers need.

“In the eTrade space, a lot of the noise you see in the market is about how [to] get volume through. Our obsession about eTraded business is quite simple – it should remove friction, not the relationship [with brokers, so] they can then spend more time on the advisory element and work with us to provide solutions for their customers.

“We’re obsessing around making sure that if we launch a product, it’s not just an online journey that brokers try and fit things into and struggle [with]. We’re making sure we’ve got solutions and expertise, either on [a] call or in their offices, to make sure we can support brokers on that journey. And quite simplistic, [we have] put more products online that brokers can trade with.

“We are slowly progressing that eTrade muscle [because] it is absolutely going to be the core of our business moving forward, in respect of generating volume.

“We’re investing a hell of a lot of time and insight into making sure that we don’t just launch products and leave them. [We are] making sure we launch solutions that brokers absolutely need.”

Striving for more

Although Markel Online is evidently performing well for brokers to achieve a four star score from Insurance Times’ report, there is obviously still scope for further improvement to the highest available five star result – an accolade achieved by Aviva Fast Trade, Zurich Online and Allianz QuoteSME in 2026.

To try and bump Markel Online’s report result up even more for the 2027 edition, Mooney said the insurer is investing in its eTrading team, seeking to appoint individuals “with more digital expertise” or a background in Acturis or “software supply”.

He continued: “That’s a big investment in capability.”

Alongside this people investment, Markel UK is investigating artificial intelligence (AI) and exploring “putting more products on the shelf” too.

Mooney said: “We’re doing a significant investment in AI. We’re doing lots of proof of concept learning in our direct division, so we’ve got AI agents helping call agents. And we’re taking the learnings from that into our eTrade business as well and putting more products on the shelf.

“So, simplistically put, we’re improving our capability. We’re improving our bench strength and we’re putting more points of contact on [Markel Online], which is product.”

Finding a good fit

Alongside Markel Online, the insurer also offers products via software house Acturis. And, although Markel UK has been actively eTrading with brokers since April 2008, this year marks the first that the insurer has ranked in the ‘via platforms’ category of the Five Star Rating Report: ETrading.

Its 2026 debut result is an overall four stars, with a precise score of 4.01 out of 5, placing it sixth out of a field of 10 insurers. It achieved four stars in each of the four service metrics used to measure performance in this category – these are breadth of cover and product range, quality of support, quotability and useability and trading ease.

Mooney acknowledged that this is “a huge improvement” to be featured, however “we’re nowhere near where we need to be”. For him, an important change on the road to improvement is pivoting from having “a very transactional relationship” with Acturis, to instead “partnering on a proper strategic level”.

He continued: “Now, we’ve got a clear plan with Acturis that gives us a full 12 to 18-month plan.”

Mooney is keen to offer brokers myriad routes to engaging with Markel UK – whether that is via Acturis, Markel Online, or more traditional communications, such as a phone call or in-person visit.

“We’re connecting all the dots in respect of making sure we do not impose our internal structure and ways of working on to our brokers,” he said. “They can use us in the best way that they feel fit for their customer and for their business.”