The private equity market will no longer be a player in the mergers and acquisition arena, but large insurance brokerage firms are now the dominant players in this space, a report from Standard & Poor's said.

With cheap credit gone, private equity firms no longer have the muscle to leverage the deals they once did, such as USI Holdings Corp. and HUB International, which were purchased with a huge amount of debt, S&P said.

However, brokers–notably Aon and Willis–are making acquisition moves, highlighted by Aon's move to acquire reinsurance broker Benfield Group Ltd. and Willis' acquisition of Hilb, Rogal and Hobbs.

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