Top 25 Financial and Insurance Services companies in the UK by Revenue in 2018

With almost 300 biggest finance and insurance companies only from London that moved their headquarters, operations or staff abroad, the industry has lost a lot from its former strength. The British economy is short of around $1,032B in assets which were relocated to the EU by banks only, not speaking of other companies from the industry. Currently, Ireland is their main destination as the closest country with very business-friendly tax policy.

Although hundreds of finance and insurance companies leave the UK in an attempt to avoid the adverse effects of Brexit, this industry is still powerful. It employs almost 1.5 million people and adds nearly $150M average gross value yearly to the British economy. The country still can provide attractive investment possibilities to foreign businesses in the finance and insurance field.

We at Global Database decided to make it easier for you to choose the appropriate partner or investment goal among the British companies from the respective sector. We created this Top largest finance and insurance companies in the UK in 2018 to provide essential info on the current state of each of them. The list is based on our business intelligence platform, that contains relevant company data, financial and digital insights into enterprises from 34 industries across 195 countries.

Why not benefit from the more prominent players’ exit from the UK financial market and enter it with a new business? In the prevailing circumstances, chances to succeed are high. Global Database is always here to help you with that, providing verified and actual company information in a few clicks.

*All figures are in USD. M: Millions of USD, B: Billions of USD, T: Trillions of USD

*GBB was converted to USD using an average currency rate of 1 GBP to 1.29 USD

1. Prudential ($111.5B)

Prudential plc (further Prudential) is the leading financial services company in the UK, focused on life insurance, investment management and consumer finance. The company employs 24,711 people that, serving over 26M life customers, managed to generate $111.5B revenue in 2018. The three business units of Prudential (the UK and Europe, Asia and the US) brought it $3.1B in profits (18.6% higher than in 2017). A part of the profits is annually directed for sports. The company is the inaugural sponsor of the RideLondon cycling festival.    
 

2. HSBC Holdings ($79.6B)

HSBC Holdings plc (further HSBC) is a world-known banking and financial services corporation, operating in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Oceania. It’s a multinational company with headquarters in London. Being the largest bank in Europe and one of the 7 world’s biggest banks, HSBC reached $10.8B in profits and $79.6B in revenue in 2018. Its 4 business groups employ around 228,687 professionals across 35 principal subsidiaries.
 

3. Aviva ($63.9B)

Aviva was founded 19 years ago. It is the third biggest financial services company in the UK, operating as a multinational insurance organisation in 16 countries. Its 30,021 employees are serving clients across the Aviva branches all over the world. Most of the clients are from Europe and Asia - the company’s focus markets. 18 principal subsidiaries provide general and life insurance, long term savings and fund management services to circa 33M clients.
 

4. Legal & General Group ($55.9B)

Legal & General Group plc (further Legal & General) is a multinational company from the UK, operating in financial services and asset management domains. Europe, Asia, the Gulf and the US are its key markets providing together $55.9B in revenue and $2.4B in profits as of 2018 to the company. Although Legal & General is the world’s tenth biggest investment management company, it employs only about 7,500 professionals. This number of employees, however, is enough to provide high-quality services.
 

5. Lloyds Banking Group ($52.4B)

Lloyds Banking Group plc (further Lloyds), one of the most prominent financial institutions from the UK, is providing financial services in Europe, Asia, the US and the Middle East. Services, provided by 67,905 Lloyds’ employees across its multinational subsidiaries network, include retail banking as well as pension and insurance management. Lloyd's five divisions generated $52.4B revenue and $4.9B profits in 2018. This result allowed the company to enter the Top-5 largest financial and insurance services companies by Global Database.
 

6. PwC ($41.3B)

PricewaterhouseCoopers (further PwC) is an international professional services company, focusing on financial and tax advisory as well as legal and assurance services. The PwC network counts around 800 offices in 150 countries across the world. Almost 251,000 employees serve the network in 7 geographical regions. The PwC revenue for 2018 was $41.3B, North America and the Caribbean region generating the biggest part of it.
 

7. Standard Life ($40.1B)

Standard Life Aberdeen plc (further Standard Life) is a British financial institution, working in life and health insurance, long-term savings and assets management fields. The company operates internationally reporting $868B assets under management, which makes it the 2nd biggest fund manager in Europe, following Legal & General. Over 1,000 investment professionals serve Standard Life’s clients in 80 countries. They managed to generate a revenue of $40.1B in 2018.  
 

8. EY (Ernst & Young) ($34.8B)

Ernst & Young (further EY) is yet another international professional services company among the biggest British financial services institutions. Over 270,000 employees provide tax and financial advisory services, as well as assurance and legal ones, to clients from 150 countries. The company is territorially organised in 4 regions (EMEIA, Asia Pacific, Japan and the Americas) with the same business structure, working smoothly despite the cultural differences.
 

9. Barclays ($34.5B)

Barclays plc (further Barclays) had a hard year in terms of financials in 2018. It registered $1.7B deficit in profits and negative revenue change - 6.2% less than the previous year. The revenue for 2018 was $34.5B. Despite all the troubles, Barclays keeps the position of one of the major British banks. It operates in investment banking and financial services fields for over 320 years now. 79,000 professionals the bank employs serve clients in 30 principal divisions and subsidiaries in the UK and multiple others all over the world.
 

10. Royal Bank of Scotland ($21.1B)

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (further RBS Group) is a major banking and insurance holding company from the UK, operating subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and North America. Being once the largest bank in the world, RBC lost its position after the 2008 global financial crisis. Now it’s the 10th largest financial services company in the United Kingdom with 10 key subsidiaries and an annual income of $21.1B as of 2018.
 

11. Standard Chartered ($14.8B)

Standard Chartered PLC (further Standard Chartered) is an internationally operating banking and financial services organisation with over 1,700 branches in 70 countries. The company employs near 87,000 professionals serving clients all over the world. Its $34.4B market cap and $14.8B yearly income (as of 2018) made it the 309th in the Forbes Global 2000 list. Almost 90% of its profits are generated by the Middle East, Asian and African Standard Chartered subsidiaries.
 

12. St. James's Place ($11.6B)

St. James's Place plc (further St. James's Place) is a UK company providing financial services and wealth management. It operates in 4 business sectors for customers across Europe and Asia. The company’s revenue of $11.6B from 2018 was the reason for it to be included in the Top largest UK financial and insurance companies, created by Global Database. It can also boast of $109.2M operating revenue and $273.5M net income in 2018.
 

13. Aon ($10.7B)

Aon plc (further Aon) is yet another professional services company from the UK with risk and health insurance and retirement funds management as the key business directions. Over 50,000 employees work for the company’s clients in around 500 offices in 120 countries. Once being the world’s biggest insurance broker by revenue (in 2011), now Aon is on the 13th place among the British financial and insurance services companies reporting a revenue of $10.7B.

14. RSA Insurance Group ($9.2B)

RSA Insurance Group plc (further RSA) is a worldwide operating general insurance company from the UK. It is the 14th in our rating with a yearly income of $9.2B as of 2018. With its main markets in the UK, Ireland, Canada and Scandinavia, RSA operates in almost 140 more countries. The company has a developed network of local partners in each of these countries. Its 13,500 employees serve around 9M customers worldwide through 15 key subsidiaries.
 

15. BDO ($9B)

BDO UK (further BDO) is the British member of the BDO Global group - an international public accounting, tax and consulting company. The group registered a 10,7% global income growth in 2018 compared to 2017, which is now $9B. The BDO UK is one of the founder members of BDO Global along with the US, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. All of them are coordinated by the Group’s main office in Belgium.
 

16. Willis Towers Watson ($8.1B)

Willis Towers Watson, world’s 3rd biggest insurance broker (as of 2018), also operates in risk management and financial services domains. The company employs over 43,000 professionals serving clients from over 140 countries. Due to its annual revenue of $8.1B in 2018 Willis Towers Watson was included in the Global Database’s rating of the largest financial and insurance services companies in the UK.
 

17. Phoenix Group Holdings ($7.8B)

Phoenix Group Holdings Ltd. (further Phoenix Group) operates in 2 business segments with insurance services as their key activity. The company is one of the oldest insurance services providers in the UK, performing quite successfully to date. It registered annual revenue of $7.8B in 2018 and thusly made it to the Global Database Top UK financial and insurance services companies.  
 

18. Investec ($5.4B)

Investec, one of the most prominent banking and asset management companies in the United Kingdom, has two headquarters: one - locally, and the other one - in South Africa. Respectively, the main markets of the company are in South Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific. Around 8,200 employees of Investec are serving clients around the world in more than 14 countries. Jointly they generated a revenue of $5.4B in 2018.
 

19. Schroders ($3.3B)

Schroders plc (further Schroders) is one of the oldest asset management companies in the UK, working internationally. It covers around 30 European, Asian, African, American and Middle East countries with more than 5,000 professionals serving local clients. With a market cap of $13.2B and annual revenue of $3.3B, as of 2018, Schroders becomes one of the largest British financial and insurance services companies by revenue.
 

20. Quilter ($2.9B)

Quilter plc (further Quilter) is the company, separated from Old Mutual plc (a pan-African financial services group) to operate in the UK. Now it’s managing former Old Mutual’s British insurance, savings, investment, wealth and asset management affairs. The IPO of Quilter that took place in June 2018 has valued the company at $3.35B. It managed to earn $2.9B in revenue till the end of 2018 and this made it a member of our major UK financial services companies list.
 

21. Standard Life Aberdeen ($2.8B)

Standard Life Aberdeen plc (further Standard Life Aberdeen) got its current name in 2017. It is an investment company, located in Scotland and operating internationally. Standard Life Aberdeen manages $865B, thus being the 2nd biggest fund manager in Europe. The company has around 1,000 employees delivering some of the best investment solutions to clients in 80 countries.
 

22. London Stock Exchange ($2.5B)

One of the world’s oldest stock exchanges, London SE made it to this list due to its services as a financial information company, $4.59T market cap and $2.5B yearly income in 2018. With almost 500 years history, today it welcomes circa 2,500 issuers. Its 5,000 employees help clients from 60 countries use the London Stock Exchange services. The two of its dedicated markets are specialist fund market and professional securities market.
 

23. TP ICAP ($2.3B)

TP ICAP plc (further TP ICAP) works in financial, commodities and energy business sectors across the world. Over 5,100 employees from TP ICAP help its international clients achieve goals within the markets they’re focused on. The company performs its operations through five differently focused subsidiaries, all bringing a sound revenue. For example, in 2018 it recorded $2.3B in income and $3.4B market cap.
 

24. CYBG ($1.6B)

CYBG plc (further CYBG) is an international banking and financial services company from the United Kingdom that owns four regional banks in the country. CYBG employs almost 6,500 professionals serving clients through four operational headquarters and multiple offices. Together they generated $1.6B in annual revenue in 2018. This allowed the company to become a part of our most prominent UK companies working in financial and insurance services sector.
 

25. Virgin Money Holdings ($1.3B)

Virgin Money Holdings UK plc (further Virgin Money UK) is the financial and bank services company, operating globally. It is owned by the Virgin Atlantic key figure - Sir Richard Branson known for his innovative solutions from different banking spheres. Virgin Money UK employs over 3,200 professionals providing all sorts of financial services through 5 offices in the UK and multiple offices abroad. Together these generated $1.3B in revenue in 2018.