UK financial, insurance and holding companies in numbers (October 2026)
Key figures compared with the UK
| Measure | This sector | All UK | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active companies | 218,846 | 5,166,057 | 4.2% of UK |
| Median company age (years) | 4.8 | 5.6 | 14% lower |
| Incorporated in the last 3 years | 36.6% | 34.0% | close to UK |
| Filing micro-entity accounts | 20.3% | 32.4% | 12.1 pts lower |
| Filing dormant accounts | 11.9% | 10.8% | 1.1 pts higher |
| Accounts overdue | 3.3% | 1.8% | 1.5 pts higher |
| Under a proposal to strike off | 3.7% | 7.4% | 3.7 pts lower |
| In liquidation, administration or receivership | 1.5% | 2.0% | 0.5 pts lower |
| With outstanding charges (secured lending) | 16.3% | 12.1% | 4.2 pts higher |
| Median net assets | £9,517 | £3,113 | 206% higher |
| Negative net assets | 14.4% | 18.8% | 4.4 pts lower |
| Net current liabilities | 35.9% | 36.2% | close to UK |
| Median cash at bank | £10k | £10k | close to UK |
| Cash covers creditors due within a year | 37.6% | 35.3% | close to UK |
| Holding £100k or more in cash | 25.8% | 20.3% | 5.5 pts higher |
| Median employees (where stated) | 1 | 1 | close to UK |
Balance sheet measures use each active company's most recent machine-readable (iXBRL) accounts with a period ending in 2024 or later: 133,828 companies here (61.2% of active). Net assets 25th to 75th percentile: £8 to £261k. Cash 25th to 75th percentile: £135 to £106k.
What the numbers say
The financial and insurance section is mostly not banks or insurers. Its largest code by far is 64209 activities of other holding companies n.e.c., with 119,904 live companies, followed by 64999 financial intermediation n.e.c. (31,532). Holding companies own shares in trading subsidiaries or property, and that shapes most of the figures.
Net assets are high. The median is £9,517, about three times the UK median, and the upper quartile reaches £260,559, more than five times the UK's £47,001. A holding company's main asset is its investment in subsidiaries, often with few liabilities against it. Negative net assets are rarer as a result: 14.4% against 18.8%. The trend has stayed flat (13.7% for financial years ending in 2014 and 14.0% in 2025) while the UK figure rose from 16.4% to 18.6%. A negative figure is a warning sign, not proof of insolvency (negative net assets).
Filing is weaker. 3.3% of active companies are overdue with accounts, nearly double the UK rate (see overdue accounts data). Group structures, audited or consolidated accounts and investment vehicles with little day-to-day activity likely make deadlines easier to miss. Only 20.3% file micro-entity accounts, against 32.4%, consistent with more companies preparing fuller accounts.
Other differences:
- Under a proposal to strike off: 3.7%, half the UK's 7.4%. Holding companies tend to stay on the register as long as the group exists.
- Outstanding charges: 16.3% against 12.1%, likely including acquisition finance secured on shares and mortgage finance vehicles.
- Cash is polarised: the lower quartile is just £135, while 25.8% hold £100k or more, against 20.3%.
New entry is rising: 28,815 of today's active companies were incorporated in 2025, against 6,371 from 2016, likely as more owners put a holding company above their business or property. When assessing a group, check the subsidiaries too, using how to check a UK company, and compare with information and communication.
Share with negative net assets, 2014 to 2025
Share of accounts with net liabilities (total liabilities larger than total assets) by financial year end, for companies on the live register. Dissolved companies are not included because the register no longer lists their industry, so earlier years show survivors. Negative net assets is a warning sign, not proof of insolvency: see what negative net assets means.
Accounts types filed
| Type of last accounts | Share here | Share UK |
|---|---|---|
| Total exemption full | 25.5% | 23.8% |
| No accounts filed yet | 24.3% | 26.0% |
| Micro-entity | 20.3% | 32.4% |
| Dormant | 11.9% | 10.8% |
| Full (audited) | 6.4% | 1.5% |
| Group | 4.0% | 0.5% |
| Small | 2.6% | 1.2% |
| Audit exemption subsidiary | 2.4% | 0.7% |
The type shows how much a company has to disclose. Micro-entity and abridged accounts contain no profit and loss account on the public record. Read more about accounts categories and micro-entities.
Active companies by year of incorporation
Companies incorporated in each year that are still active today. Younger cohorts are larger partly because older ones have been dissolved.
Most common activity codes
| SIC | Activity | Live companies |
|---|---|---|
| 64209 | Activities of other holding companies n.e.c. | 119,904 |
| 64999 | Financial intermediation not elsewhere classified | 31,532 |
| 64205 | Activities of financial services holding companies | 8,596 |
| 66190 | Activities auxiliary to financial intermediation n.e.c. | 8,089 |
| 66220 | Activities of insurance agents and brokers | 6,301 |
| 64922 | Activities of mortgage finance companies | 5,307 |
| 64304 | Activities of open-ended investment companies | 5,106 |
| 64991 | Security dealing on own account | 4,810 |
Divisions in this section
| Division | Active companies | Negative net assets | Median cash | Overdue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64 Financial services, including holding companies | 189,363 | 14.7% | £7,679 | 3.1% |
| 66 Activities auxiliary to financial services and insurance | 23,576 | 13.6% | £27k | 3.0% |
| 65 Insurance, reinsurance and pension funding | 5,907 | 9.0% | £64k | 9.0% |
Methodology
Industry is the first SIC code each company declares on the Companies House register (snapshot 1 October 2026); the dormant placeholder 99999 is excluded. Status, accounts type and due dates come from the register. Financial measures come from our parse of 37 million iXBRL accounts filed since 2008; values above £100bn are treated as extraction errors. Companies filing paper or PDF accounts are not in the balance sheet figures. Full details: methodology.
Download and cite
Download these figures as CSV. Licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse freely with a link to this page.
Check a specific company in this sector with our free company search, or query these statistics from code and AI assistants through the API and MCP server (tool market_stats).