This page shows our latest analysis of the intermediary sector based on data drawn from the Retail Mediation Activities Return (RMAR) for 2021.
Firms that provide advice on, or arrange, mortgages, insurance policies or retail investment products for consumers must send us information about their activities on the RMAR.
We use this information to help us supervise the activities of these intermediary firms and inform our other regulatory functions. We have published data from the RMAR since 2016. This analysis gives an update on firms in the retail intermediary sector based on data for 2021.
The data on this page reflects returns submitted to us by firms for periods ending within 2021.
In our analysis we categorise firms based on their main type of regulated business activity, for example financial advisers, insurance intermediaries, mortgage brokers. In our 2020 publication we changed the internal methodology used to categorise firms. Some firms may have changed category due to this, so care should be taken when comparing the two data sets from and after 2020 at the category level.
Key findings
- Compared to 2020, reported revenue earned from retail investment intermediation increased 22% to £5.4 billion and reported revenue from mortgage broking increased by 16% to £1.41 billion as shown in Figure 1 and 2.
- Revenue from non-investment insurance distribution also rose by 3.9% to £19.35 billion as shown in Figure 3.
- The share of retail investment revenue accounted for by commission continues to fall – down from 14% in 2020 to 13% in 2021. For non-investment insurance distribution and mortgage broking, commission remains the primary source of revenue, accounting for 84% (same as in 2020) and 80% (78% in 2020) respectively as shown in Figures 1 to 3.
- The reported number of retail investment adviser posts across all firms rose slightly to 36,674 from 36,377 in 2020. Posts at financial adviser firms accounted for 76% (27,839) of these. Within these, firms with over 50 advisers accounted for 49% of all adviser posts in 2020, same as in 2020.
- For firms providing retail investment advice, those providing independent advice accounted for 63% of revenue earned from adviser charges (up from 61% in 2020) and those providing restricted advice accounted for 37%.
Download underlying data for 2021 (XLSX)
Trends in revenue 2013-2021
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Data table
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Copyright
The data on this page is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence.
Next publication: 3 August 2023