We met in Turin – and what a meeting it was.

Eubronet Annual Meeting | 21–22 May 2026 | Turin, Italy

Every year, the Eubronet meeting reminds us why we built this network in the first place. Not for the formal presentations – though those are always packed with insight – but for the conversations in between. The debates over dinner. The realisation that a colleague in Madrid is dealing with exactly the same challenge you are in Helsinki, or that a contact in Nicosia has just the expertise your client in Brussels needs. This year in Turin, that spirit was very much alive.

Twenty four members from thirteen countries gathered around the table, each bringing a fresh perspective on their local market. And while the contexts vary widely – from Cyprus's sun-soaked Mediterranean economy to Finland's fee-only broker landscape – some themes kept coming up again and again.

The most obvious one? Consolidation. Almost every country reported the same story: larger players buying up smaller ones at a pace that's reshaping the broker landscape. Spain took the prize for sheer volume – 141 M&A transactions in the Iberian market in 2025 alone. The UK wasn't far behind, with Aon, Ardonagh, Howden, and others continuing their buying sprees – and our own Bridge Insurance Brokers joining Gallagher in April 2026 (the Bridge team remains intact, we're pleased to say). In Switzerland, the Helvetia-Baloise merger reshuffled the entire insurer ranking. In Belgium, investment funds are snapping up brokers left and right. In Finland, the broker market has gone from over 60 companies to around 20 in just four years – and is expected to shrink to fewer than 15 within three more.

Being all independent and family-owned, this is actually good news. Several members reported picking up clients who are frustrated with the declining service quality that often follows a big consolidation. B-Safe in Belgium, Bazzi in Italy, Unicon in Switzerland, and ATSYR in Spain reported all flagged organic growth driven precisely by this dynamic. When the big players get bigger and more impersonal, clients come looking for a broker who actually picks up the phone.

On the market side, conditions are generally softening – which is welcome after years of hardening, but comes with its own complications. In France, Diot-Siaci Nord-Est reported property and liability premiums dropping by 10 to 15% for well-performing large accounts, while regulatory changes are pushing costs back up elsewhere: France's CATNAT surcharge jumped from 12% to 20% in January 2025, and fire insurance tax rose from 7% to 12% mid-year. In Germany, ARTUS Gruppe noted that while conditions have eased slightly for well-protected risks, the market is under real structural pressure – marginal GDP growth, claims inflation running at +6.6% across all lines, and a record insolvency rate not seen in 20 years. Their message was sobering but practical: in today's environment, a client's insurability increasingly depends on the quality of their data and the seriousness of their risk prevention.

Cyber continues to be the line everyone is watching. ARTUS shared striking figures: ransomware is driving around 60% of losses above €1 million, and generative AI is making phishing and social engineering attacks faster and more convincing than ever. The good news is that strong IT security genuinely pays off – both in faster recovery times and in better policy terms. It's becoming one of the most important conversations brokers can have with their clients right now.

Romania offered perhaps the most candid assessment of the afternoon: a growing market (€5.1 billion in GWP, up 10%) operating in a turbulent political environment, with a government that fell just weeks before our meeting. Their advice to themselves – and implicitly to all of us in difficult markets – was to focus on disciplined profitability rather than chasing volume. Long-term, though, Romania remains structurally underinsured with enormous potential, particularly in life, health, and natural catastrophe coverage.

Cyprus, meanwhile, continues its quiet but steady growth. Luke Benfield of Turnkey Insurance, representing a family business now in its fourth generation, shared a market that reached €1.41 billion in total premiums in 2025, growing at nearly 7%. Small by European standards, but resilient and expanding. Finland's Nordic Broker told a similarly positive story for the firm itself – 30% annual growth for the past three to four years – even as the broader Finnish market concentrates dramatically, with the four largest non-life insurers now controlling 91% of premiums.

One topic that sparked genuine debate was the question of what Eubronet should become. ARTUS put it directly: they'd like to see us evolve into a global network. Dieter Schaublin from Switzerland pointed to the need to strengthen our public profile – a better website, more activity on LinkedIn, members actively sharing each other's content. ATSYR, a member for all 34 years of the network's existence, said it simply: more collaboration, more confidence in each other. And Diot-Siaci highlighted something we all feel but don't always say out loud – the human scale of this network is one of its greatest strengths. Direct communication, real relationships, genuine trust.

Italy was a fitting host for that kind of conversation. Bazzi Insurance Partners, our local member ranked among Italy's top 40 brokers and deeply rooted in the manufacturing sector, made sure we felt at home. And Turin – elegant, industrious, quietly confident – felt like exactly the right city for a network of brokers who share those same qualities.

Turin was a reminder that the best meetings are the ones where you leave with more questions than answers – because those are the questions worth thinking about together. We look forward to continuing that conversation.

Julien Vincentelli

Président