Marsh is well placed in international markets despite some pricing and “macro headwinds”, boss John Doyle has told a second-quarter briefing.

“Overall, I was pleased with growth at Marsh in the quarter,” the Marsh McLennan CEO said.

The broking business is building capabilities in the middle market and is “well positioned and well led” in its international operations, he says.

Marsh CEO Martin South told the briefing he was “very pleased” with international growth in the quarter and the business’ capabilities differentiate it from local rivals.

International operations produced an underlying revenue increase of 7%, including 8% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 4% in Asia-Pacific and 3% in Latin America.

“We had a really good quarter in construction activity around the business,” Mr South said.

“Our credit specialties grew; cyber, despite rate decreases, saw strong growth and penetration to our clients, as people, particularly internationally, realised the risk posed by cyber.”

Mr South says financial and professional liability grew, international capital markets business was stronger than in North America, and the benefits operation was “one of the standouts”.

“We feel we have a great momentum. We are highly differentiated where we operate, and we have leading positions in virtually every market that we operate in across international.”

Overall, the Marsh McLennan risk and insurance services division booked a 15% rise in revenue to $US4.6 billion ($7.1 billion).

Within the division, broker Marsh’s revenue gained 18% to $US3.8 billion ($5.8 billion) and reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter was up 7% to $US677 million ($1.04 billion).

For the six months to June, the division’s revenue improved 13% to $US9.3 billion ($14.2 billion).

Revenue from Marsh grew 16% to $US7.3 billion ($11.2 billion) and Guy Carpenter was up 6% to $US1.8 billion ($2.7 billion).