View source for Lloyd's of London

{{Short description|Insurance market located in the City of London}}
{{Distinguish|Lloyds Banking Group|Lloyd's Register|Lloyd's List}}
{{About|the insurance market|the film|Lloyd's of London (film)}}
{{Redirect|Lloyd's|other uses|Lloyd (disambiguation){{!}}Lloyd}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Lloyd's of London
| logo = Lloyd's of London logo.svg
| image = Lloyd's insurance exterior at night.jpg
| image_caption = The 1986 [[Lloyd's building]] in [[Lime Street, London|Lime Street]], London
| type = [[Insurance]] and [[reinsurance]] market
| foundation = {{circa}} {{Start date and age|1689}}
| founder = Edward Lloyd
| location = [[London]], England, UK
| key_people = {{ubli|Sir Charles Roxburgh, [[Chair (officer)|Chair]]| John Neal, [[Chief executive officer|CEO]]}}
| num_employees = 2,000<ref>{{cite web |url=https://craft.co/lloyd-s |title=Lloyd's |publisher=Craft}}</ref>{{verification failed|reason=Doesn't have this information|date=June 2025}}
| homepage = {{Official URL}}
}}

'''Lloyd's of London''', generally known simply as '''Lloyd's''', is an insurance and reinsurance market located in [[London]], England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body governed by the Lloyd's Act 1871 and subsequent [[Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom|Acts of Parliament]]. It operates as a partially-mutualised marketplace within which multiple financial backers, grouped in [[syndicate]]s, come together to pool and spread [[risk]]. These [[underwriting|underwriters]], or "members", include both [[corporation]]s and private individuals, the latter being traditionally known as "Names".

The business underwritten at Lloyd's is predominantly general insurance and reinsurance, with a small amount of term [[life insurance]]. The market has its roots in [[marine insurance]] and was founded by Edward Lloyd at [[Lloyd's Coffee House|his coffee-house]] on [[Great Tower Street|Tower Street]] {{circa}} 1689, making it one of the oldest insurance companies in the world. Today, it has [[Lloyd's building|a dedicated building]] on [[Lime Street, London|Lime Street]], a Grade I [[listed building|historic landmark]]. Traditionally business is transacted at each syndicate's "box" in the underwriting room, with the policy document being known as a "slip",<ref name=Mantle>{{cite book|last=Mantle|first=Jonathan|title=For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Lesson of Lloyd's of London|url=https://archive.org/details/forwhombelltolls0000mant|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=Sinclair-Stevenson |location=London|isbn=1-85619-152-4}}</ref> but in recent years it has become increasingly common for business to be conducted remotely and electronically.

The market's motto is {{lang|la|Fidentia}}, [[Latin]] for "confidence",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/llmanual/LLM1010.htm |title=Introduction to Lloyd's: background |publisher=HM Revenue and Customs |date=11 January 2008 |access-date=20 March 2011}}</ref> and it is closely associated with the Latin phrase {{lang|la|uberrima fides}}, or "utmost good faith", representing the ideal relationship between underwriters and brokers.<ref name=Mantle/>

Having survived multiple scandals and significant challenges through the second half of the 20th century, most notably the [[asbestosis]] losses which engulfed the market, Lloyd's today promotes its strong financial "chain of security" available to promptly pay all valid claims. As of 31 December 2024, this chain consists of £92.5 billion of syndicate-level assets, £30.5bn of members' "funds at Lloyd's", and £2.9bn in a third mutual link which includes the "Central Fund" and which is under the control of the Council of Lloyd's.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lloyds.com/investor-relations/lloyds-capital-structure|title=Capital structure|website=Lloyd's|access-date=29 June 2019}}</ref>

In 2023 there were 78 syndicates managed by 51 "managing agencies" that collectively wrote £52.1bn of gross premiums on risks placed by 381 registered brokers. Around half of Lloyd's premiums are paid from North America and around one quarter from Europe. Direct insurance represents roughly two-thirds of the premiums, mostly covering [[property insurance|property]] and casualty [[liability insurance|liability]], while the remaining one-third is reinsurance.

==History==

===17th–19th centuries: Formation and first Lloyd's Act===
[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 049 - Lloyd's Subscription Room edited.jpg|thumb|The Subscription Room in the early 19th century]]

The market began in [[Lloyd's Coffee House]], owned by Edward Lloyd, on [[Great Tower Street|Tower Street]] in the [[City of London]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Marcus|first=G. J.|title=Heart of Oak: A Survey of British Sea Power in the Georgian Era|year=1975|page=[https://archive.org/details/heartofoaksurvey0000marc/page/192 192]|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0192158120|url=https://archive.org/details/heartofoaksurvey0000marc/page/192}}</ref> The first reference to it can be traced to the ''[[London Gazette]]'' in 1688.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Coffee and commerce 1652–1803 |url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/coffee-and-commerce |access-date=27 January 2024 |publisher=Lloyd's of London}}</ref> The establishment was a popular place for sailors, merchants, and ship-owners, and Lloyd catered to them with reliable shipping news. The coffee house soon became recognised as an ideal place for obtaining marine insurance. The shop evolved into a meeting place for people of all types of maritime occupations, who would make bets on which ships would make it back to port. Soon, the captains of ships that were suggested to fail to return were betting against the return of other ships.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} It was the start of Lloyd's insurance. During this time, the coffee house was also frequented by mariners involved in the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schivelbusch |first=Wolfgang |title=Tastes of Paradise}}</ref>{{fcn|reason=publisher, year missing|date=June 2025}} Historian [[Eric Williams]] noted that "Lloyd's, like other insurance companies, insured slaves and [[slave ship]]s, and was vitally interested in legal decisions as to what constituted 'natural death' and 'perils of the sea{{'"}}.<ref name="Williams1994">{{cite book |last1=Williams|first1=Eric |title=Capitalism and Slavery|date=1994 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill |pages=104–105 |isbn=9780807844885 |url=https://archive.org/details/capitalismandsla033027mbp|access-date=25 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Lloyd's obtained a monopoly on maritime insurance related to the slave trade and maintained it until the [[Slave Trade Act 1807|abolition of the slave trade]] in 1807.<ref name="Williams1994"/>

Just after Christmas 1691, the small club of marine insurance underwriters relocated to No. 16 [[Lombard Street, London|Lombard Street]]; a [[blue plaque]] on the site commemorates this. This arrangement carried on until 1773, long after the death of Edward Lloyd in 1713, when the participating members of the insurance arrangement formed a committee and underwriter John Julius Angerstein acquired two rooms at the [[Royal Exchange, London|Royal Exchange]] in [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]] for "The Society of Lloyd's".<ref name=Brown>{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Antony|title=Cuthbert Heath: Maker of the Modern Lloyd's of London|year=1980|publisher=George Rainbird |location=London|isbn=0-7153-7942-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/cuthbertheathmak0000brow}}</ref> In July 1803, the [[Lloyd's Patriotic Fund]] was established by a group of Lloyd's underwriters.<ref name="c376">{{cite book | last=Barton | first=Mark | last2=McGrath | first2=John | title=British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship | publisher=Pen and Sword | date=2013-07-03 | isbn=978-1-4738-2221-4}}</ref><ref name="v937">{{cite book | last=Glover | first=Gareth | title=Nelson's Navy in 100 Objects | publisher=Frontline Books | date=2021-07-30 | isbn=978-1-5267-3135-7 | pages=277–279}}</ref><ref name="z281">{{cite book | last=Martin | first=Frederick | title=The History of Lloyd's and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain | publisher=The Lawbook Exchange | date=2004 | isbn=978-1-58477-451-8 | page=217}}</ref>

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Lloyd's Act 1871
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act for incorporation the members of the Establishment or Society formerly held at Lloyd's Coffee House in the Royal Exchange in the city of London, for the effecting of Marine Insurance, and generally known as Lloyd's; and for other purposes.
| year                  = 1871
| citation              = [[34 & 35 Vict.]] c. xxi
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 25 May 1871
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/34-35/21/contents/enacted
| revised_text          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}

The [[Royal Exchange, London|Royal Exchange]] was destroyed by fire in 1838, forcing Lloyd's into temporary offices at [[South Sea Company|South Sea House]], [[Threadneedle Street]]. The Royal Exchange was rebuilt by 1844, but many of Lloyd's early records were lost in the blaze. The '''{{visible anchor|Lloyd's Act 1871}}''' ([[34 & 35 Vict.]] c. xxi), the first Lloyd's Act, was passed in [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] which gave the business a sound legal footing. Around that time, it was unusual for a Lloyd's syndicate to have more than five or six backers; this lack of underwriting capacity meant Lloyd's was losing many of the larger risks to rival insurance companies. A marine underwriter named Frederick Marten is credited for first identifying this issue and creating the first "large syndicate", initially of 12 capacity providers. By the 1880s Marten's syndicate had outgrown many of the major insurance companies outside Lloyd's.<ref name=Brown/>

===Early 20th century: San Francisco earthquake and first Lloyd's building===
On 18 April 1906, [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|a major earthquake]] and resulting fires destroyed over 80 per cent of the city of [[San Francisco]]. This event was to have a profound influence on building practices, risk modelling and the insurance industry.

[[File:Post-and-Grant-Avenue-Look.jpg|thumb|left|The [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]] caused substantial losses for Lloyd's underwriters.]]

Lloyd's losses from the earthquake and fires were substantial, even though the writing of insurance business overseas was viewed with some wariness at the time. While some insurance companies were denying claims for fire damage under their earthquake policies or ''vice versa'', one of Lloyd's leading underwriters, [[Cuthbert Heath]], famously instructed his San Francisco agent to "pay all of our policy-holders in full, irrespective of the terms of their policies". The prompt and full payment of all claims helped to cement Lloyd's reputation for reliable claim payments and as an important trading partner for US brokers and policyholders. It was estimated that around 90 per cent of the damage to the city was caused by the resultant fires and as such, since 1906 "fire following earthquake" has generally been a specified insured peril under most policies. Heath is also credited for introducing the now widely used "excess of loss" reinsurance protection for insurers following the San Francisco quake.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/catastrophes-and-claims/san-francisco-1906-earthquake|title=San Francisco earthquake|website=Lloyd's|access-date=29 June 2019}}</ref>

Heath had become an underwriting member of Lloyd's in 1880, upon reaching the minimum age of 21, on J. S. Burrows' syndicate. Within a year he was underwriting for himself on a three-man syndicate; in 1883 he also opened a brokerage business. In 1885, he wrote the first fire reinsurance contract, reinsuring the [[Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society|Hand in Hand Insurance Company]] and marking the start of Heath's push to diversify the market into "non-marine" business. He also wrote Lloyd's first [[burglary]] insurance policy, its first "all risks" jewellery policy and invented "jewellers' block" cover. Later, during [[World War I]] he offered air-raid insurance, protecting against the risk of [[German strategic bombing during World War I|German strategic bombing]].<ref name=Brown/>

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Lloyd's Act 1911
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to extend the objects of and confer further powers on Lloyd's and to amend the Lloyd's Act 1871.
| year                  = 1911
| citation              = [[1 & 2 Geo. 5]]. c. lxii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 18 August 1911
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Geo5/1-2/62/contents/enacted
| revised_text          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
The subsequent '''{{visible anchor|Lloyd's Act 1911}}''' ([[1 & 2 Geo. 5]]. c. lxii) set out the society's objectives, which include the promotion of its members' interests and the collection and dissemination of information.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lloyds.com/The-Market/Operating-at-Lloyds/Regulation/Acts-and-Byelaws/~/media/Files/The%20Market/Operating%20at%20Lloyds/Regulation/Acts%20and%20byelaws/Acts/Mar07LloydsAct1911.pdf|title=Lloyd's Act 1911|publisher=Lloyd's of London|access-date=26 February 2011|archive-date=28 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928121010/http://www.lloyds.com/The-Market/Operating-at-Lloyds/Regulation/Acts-and-Byelaws/~/media/Files/The%20Market/Operating%20at%20Lloyds/Regulation/Acts%20and%20byelaws/Acts/Mar07LloydsAct1911.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A year later in April 1912 Lloyd's suffered perhaps its most famous loss: the sinking of the ''[[Titanic]]''. It was insured for £1 million, which represented 20 per cent of the entire market's capacity, making it the largest marine risk ever insured. The record of its sinking in the 1912 "Loss Book" is on display in the Lloyd's building.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/sweeping-change-new-standards | title=Sweeping change, new standards 1827–1945 }}</ref>

The society moved into its first owned, dedicated building in 1928. It was located at 12 [[Leadenhall Street]] and had been designed by [[Edwin Cooper (architect)|Sir Edwin Cooper]].

===1960s: Hurricane Betsy and the Cromer report===
In 1965 Lloyd's wrote the first satellite insurance policy, covering [[Intelsat I]] in pre-launch.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/new-frontiers-and-greater-risk | title=The age of new frontiers 1965-2014 }}</ref>

Later that year, when Lloyd's had around 6,000 members on 300 syndicates, [[Hurricane Betsy]] struck the [[Gulf of Mexico]] coastlines, costing the market over £50 million. The catastrophe halted the capital that hitherto had been pouring into Lloyd's, and twice as many members left between 1965 and 1968 as had left over the prior eight years.<ref name=Mantle/> It was soon realised that the membership of the Society, which had been largely made up of market participants, was too small in relation to the [[Market capitalization|market's capitalisation]] and the risks that it was taking on.

Lloyd's response was to commission a secret internal inquiry in 1968, headed by [[Rowland Baring, 3rd Earl of Cromer|Lord Cromer]], a former [[Governor of the Bank of England]]. This report advocated the widening of membership to non-market participants, including non-British subjects and then women, and the reduction of the onerous capitalisation requirements (thus creating a minor investor known as a "mini-Name"). The report also drew attention to the danger of [[conflict of interest|conflicts of interest]]. The liability of the individual Names was unlimited, and thus all their personal wealth and assets were at risk.

===1970s: Changes in the financial markets===
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2025}}
During the 1970s, a number of issues arose which were to have significant influence on the course of the Society. The first was the tax structure in the UK: for a time, [[capital gain]]s were [[Capital gains tax|taxed]] at up to 40 per cent (nil on [[Gilt-edged securities|gilt]]s); earned income was taxed in the top bracket at 83 per cent, and investment income in the top bracket at 98 per cent. Lloyd's income counted as earned income, even for Names who did not work at Lloyd's, and this heavily influenced the direction of underwriting: in short, it was desirable for syndicates to make a (small) underwriting loss but a (larger) investment gain. The investment gain was typically achieved by "[[Bond (finance)|bond]] washing" or "gilt stripping": selling the gilt or other bond cum dividend and buying it back [[Ex-dividend date|ex-dividend]], thus forfeiting the interest income in exchange for a tax-free capital gain. Syndicate funds were also moved offshore (which later created problems through fraud and self-dealing).

Because Lloyd's was a tax shelter as well as an insurance market, the second issue affecting it was an increase in its external membership: by the end of the 1970s, the number of passive investors dwarfed the number of underwriters working in the market. The third issue related to a series of losses as a result of scandal.<ref name="e130">{{cite web | title=Business: Lloyd's Losses | website=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date=1980-03-03 | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C950302-2%2C00.html | access-date=2024-10-05}}</ref> During the decade a number of scandals had come to light, including the collapse of F. H. "Tim" Sasse's non-marine syndicate 762, which had issued large fire insurance claims that had highlighted both the lack of regulation and the lack of legal powers of the Committee of Lloyd's (as it was then) to manage the Society.<ref name="e130"/>

===Late 1970s: Sasse scandal and other issues===
The collapse of the Sasse syndicate came after it wrote a "binding authority" in 1975 that delegated underwriting authority to Florida-based expatriate Dennis Harrison to write property and fire risks through his Den-Har Underwriters agency, even though Den-Har was not an approved Lloyd's coverholder (a fact noticed neither by Sasse nor Lloyd's Non-Marine Association). Den-Har had suspected [[American Mafia|Mafia]] links and many of the risks written were rigged: typically dilapidated buildings in slums such as [[New York City|New York]]'s [[south Bronx]], which soon burned down after being insured for large sums.

Once the three-year Lloyd's accounting period passed, the 110 Names on syndicate 762 were told they faced substantial losses, from mostly fraudulent claims. Sasse's reinsurer, the [[Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil]] (IRB), refused to pay its share of the fraudulent losses. The Names (few in number for such large losses) took legal action and ultimately paid only £6.25m of {{circa}} £15m of Den-Har claims under the 1976 year, leaving the Corporation of Lloyd's to pay the remainder. The Corporation also paid the near £7m loss for 1977.<ref name=Hodgson/> Lloyd's banned Sasse from the market for life in 1985; he died on 28 February 1987.

Sasse had also been one of 57 underwriters on other syndicates that wrote loss-making "computer leasing" policies in the late 1970s. These claims ultimately ran above $450m, wiping out more than half the entire market's profit in a single year.<ref name=Mantle/>

Problems also developed out of the Oakley Vaughan agency run by brothers Edward and Charles St George, which had written far more business than its capacity allowed in order to invest premium to take advantage of high interest rates. By writing swathes of business regardless of whether the premiums were adequate, the St Georges left their Names with serious losses. Lloyd's had commissioned investigations into Oakley Vaughan, but investigators were denied access to the books and relied only on reassurances that the agency was profitable.<ref name=Luessenhop>{{cite book|last=Luessenhop|first=Elizabeth|title=Risky Business|year=1995|publisher=Scribner|location=New York|isbn=0-684-19739-1|url=https://archive.org/details/riskybusinessins00lues}}</ref>

Arising simultaneously with these developments were wider issues: first, in the US, an ever-widening interpretation by the courts of insurance coverage in relation to [[workers' compensation]] for [[asbestosis]]-related claims, which created a huge hole in Lloyd's loss-payment reserves, which was initially not recognised and then not acknowledged. Second, by the end of the decade, almost all of the market agreements, such as the Joint Hull Agreement, which were effectively [[cartel]]s mandating minimum terms, had been abandoned under pressure of competition. Third, new specialised policies had arisen which had the effect of concentrating risk: these included "run-off" policies, under which the liability of previous underwriting years would be transferred to the current year, and "time and distance" policies, whereby reserves would be used to buy a guarantee of future income.

===Early 1980s: New Lloyd's Act, Lioncover and Centrewrite===

====Fisher report====
In 1980, [[Henry Arthur Pears Fisher|Sir Henry Fisher]] was commissioned by the Council of Lloyd's to produce the foundation for a new Lloyd's Act. The recommendations of his report addressed the "democratic deficit" and the lack of regulatory muscle.

Fisher, working with Richard Southwell QC, drafted the '''{{visible anchor|Lloyd's Act 1982}}''' (c. xiv) which further redefined the structure of the business and was designed to give external Names, introduced in response to the Cromer report, a say in the running of the business through a new governing Council.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lloyds.com/The-Market/Operating-at-Lloyds/Regulation/Acts-and-Byelaws/~/media/Files/The%20Market/Operating%20at%20Lloyds/Regulation/Acts%20and%20byelaws/Acts/Dec08LloydsAct%201982_2008.pdf|title=Lloyd's Act 1982|access-date=26 February 2011|archive-date=28 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928121032/http://www.lloyds.com/The-Market/Operating-at-Lloyds/Regulation/Acts-and-Byelaws/~/media/Files/The%20Market/Operating%20at%20Lloyds/Regulation/Acts%20and%20byelaws/Acts/Dec08LloydsAct%201982_2008.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The main purpose of the 1982 Act was to separate the ownership of the managing agents of the underwriting syndicates from the ownership of the brokering houses (which acted as intermediaries, not as underwriters), with the objective of removing conflicts of interest.

====PCW scam and Lioncover====
Immediately after the passing of the 1982 act, evidence came to light and internal disciplinary proceedings were commenced against a number of underwriters who had allegedly siphoned money from their syndicates to their own accounts. These individuals included a deputy chairman of Lloyd's and some of its leading underwriters. Successful marine underwriter [[Ian Posgate]], who at one point had written 20 per cent of the Lloyd's marine market, was expelled under suspicions but later acquitted of criminal charges. His name remained tarnished and he did not return to the market, retiring to run his Oxfordshire farm until his death in 2017 aged 87. A greater debacle arose when Peter Cameron-Webb and Peter Dixon, of PCW Underwriting Agencies, allegedly defrauded their business of some $60m through rigged reinsurance transactions and fled to the United States, never to return.

The emergence of fraud at PCW was the first in a series of events that led to the resignation of Lloyd's chairman Sir Peter Green in 1983. Lloyd's was later forced to make a settlement with the roughly 3,000 Names on the various PCW syndicates involved and to reinsure their liabilities into a new syndicate, number 9001, in turn reinsured by a unique vehicle named Lioncover, which was set up as a Lloyd's subsidiary insurance company. Lioncover assumed the liabilities of PCW as well as the associated WMD and Richard Beckett underwriting agencies in 1987. In 1988 it also assumed the 1967–1969 liabilities of syndicates 2 and 49. Dixon and Cameron-Webb remained at large in the US; Cameron-Webb reportedly died in 2004 in a nursing home in California<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.i-law.com/ilaw/doc/view.htm?id=117791|title=Peter Cameron-Webb dies in California|website=i-law.com|date=February 2023 |last1=Faulkner |first1=Michael }}</ref> and Dixon became a real estate agent in Florida; he died in 2017.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Lioncover's PCW liabilities were reinsured as part of the [[Equitas]] arrangement in the late 1990s and transferred to [[National Indemnity Company]] in two stages in 2007 and 2009. Residual funds in Lioncover were later distributed to surviving PCW Names or donated to the Lloyd's Charities Trust. Lioncover was voluntarily dissolved in 2014.

====Warrilow syndicate and Centrewrite====
Lloyd's also faced action from Names on C. J. Warrilow's syndicate 553, which had chronically exceeded its underwriting capacity in the early 1980s and failed to adequately reinsure the huge quantity of risks it was taking on. The solution was to create a new company in 1990 into which these liabilities could be reinsured in order to relieve the Warrilow Names. This entity was named Centrewrite Ltd and in 1993 it assumed Warrilow's 1985 and prior years' liabilities, separately also offering "estate protection plans" (EPPs) for resigned Names. Tens of thousands of Lloyd's Names bought these reinsurance policies.

Centrewrite still exists today but has not written any EPPs since 2011 and conducts little other business; its most recent transaction was in 2013 when it assumed the 2001 liabilities of the life syndicate 1171. It also reinsured the 1997–1999 years of Crowe syndicate 1204 and the 1999–2001 years of Cotesworth syndicate 535. In 2012 the Crowe and Cotesworth liabilities (then valued at just over £17m) were [[Novation|novated]] to Riverstone (a [[Fairfax Financial|Fairfax]] company) meaning minimal liabilities remain in Centrewrite today.

In 1986, the year Lloyd's moved into a new building at 1 Lime Street (where it remains today), the British government commissioned [[Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen|Sir Patrick Neill]] to report on the standard of investor protection available at Lloyd's. His report was produced in 1987 and made a large number of recommendations, but was never implemented in full.

===Late 1980s: Piper Alpha and the LMX spiral===
It has long been normal for one Lloyd's syndicate to reinsure another, but when [[Piper Alpha]], a [[North Sea oil]] rig, exploded on 6 July 1988 causing an initial $1.4bn loss, the practice had become so widespread that the underwriters in Lime Street initially had no idea how extensive their exposure was: the loss was passed around in what became known as the London market excess of loss (LMX) "spiral" and claim values escalated out of control.

The rig's operator, [[Occidental Petroleum]], bought a direct insurance policy from Lloyd's underwriters, who then passed part of their shares of the risk on to other syndicates via reinsurance. Those reinsurers then in turn reinsured part of the risk out to other reinsurance underwriters within Lloyd's (known as "retrocessionaires"), and so on. Consequently, many syndicates, especially those writing a large amount of excess of loss reinsurance, became exposed to the same claim multiple times through multiple layers in the spiral. Other catastrophes, including [[Hurricane Hugo]] and the [[Exxon Valdez oil spill|''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill]] in 1989, also went into the spiral.

Some of the leading LMX reinsurers at the time that suffered serious spiral losses included the numerous syndicates managed by the Gooda Walker agency, Devonshire syndicate 216, Rose Thomson Young 255, R. J. Bromley 475, and Patrick Fagan's already challenged Feltrim syndicates 540 and 542. Gooda Walker syndicate 298 became the first fatal casualty, with 13,500 policies being exposed to the Piper Alpha disaster alone and its 1989 account producing a 650 per cent loss on capacity; Feltrim followed with a 550 per cent loss on capacity.<ref name=Mantle/> Roy Bromley, underwriter of syndicate 475, later committed suicide after being dismissed by his Board and reportedly becoming distressed at his operation's mounting losses.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/lloyds-underwriter-commits-suicide-1480134.html|title=Lloyd's underwriter commits suicide|last=Moore|first=John|date=23 January 1993|work=[[The Independent]]|access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref>

Not all excess of loss writers succumbed to the LMX spiral; in fact the spiral was relatively confined to a minority of such syndicates. Among the prominent reinsurers that remained profitable throughout the spiral were C. F. Palmer syndicate 314, M. H. Cockell 269/570 and D. P. Mann 435, while G. S. Christensen 958 reported only a slight loss in 1989 but healthy profits in 1990 and 1991.<ref name=Luessenhop/>

===1990s: Fallout of the asbestosis affair===
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2022}}

====Emergence of claims====
The early to mid-1990s saw the continuation of Lloyd's most traumatic period in its history that had begun with the explosion on Piper Alpha. Unexpectedly large legal awards in US courts for [[punitive damages]] led to substantial claims on [[Asbestos and the law|asbestos]], pollution and [[Diethylstilbestrol|health hazard]] (APH) policies, some dating as far back as the 1940s. Many of these policies were open-peril policies, meaning that they covered any claim not specifically excluded. Other policies (called standard, or broad) only cover stated perils, such as fire.

The classic example of "long-tail" insurance risks is asbestosis/[[mesothelioma]] claims under employers' liability or workers' compensation policies. An employee at an industrial plant may have been exposed to asbestos in the 1960s, fallen ill 20 years later and claimed compensation from his former employer in the 1990s. The employer would report a claim to the insurance company that wrote the policy in the 1960s. However, because the insurer did not fully understand the nature of the future risk back in the 1960s, it and its reinsurers would not have properly priced or reserved for it. In the case of Lloyd's, this resulted in the bankruptcy of thousands of individual investors who indemnified general liability policies written from the 1940s to the mid-1970s for companies with exposure to asbestosis claims. A group of Names mounted a legal case as the Names Against Lloyd's of London, where they attempted to prove fraud among those brokers who had involved them in the underwriting syndicates.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2000/nov/04/business.personalfinancenews1 | title=How the Names lost their shirts | newspaper=The Guardian | date=4 November 2000 | last1=Griffin | first1=Rob | last2=Inman | first2=Phillip }}</ref>

====Reinsurance to close====
It may not be immediately clear how current members of current Lloyd's syndicates, which accept business one year at a time, could be liable to pay historical claims. This came about as a result of the Lloyd's accounting practice known as [[reinsurance to close]] (RITC).

A member "joined" a syndicate for one calendar year only, known as the "annual venture". At the end of the year, the syndicate as an ongoing trading entity was effectively disbanded. However, usually the syndicate re-formed for the next calendar year with the same identifying number and more or less the same membership. Since claims can take time to be reported and then paid, the profit or loss for each syndicate took time to realise. The practice at Lloyd's was to wait three years (that is, 36 months from the beginning of the year in which the business was written) before "closing" the year for accounting purposes and declaring a result.

To calculate the profit or loss, reserves were set aside for future claims payments, for claims that had already been notified but not yet paid, as well as estimated amounts for claims that had been [[incurred but not reported]] (IBNR). This estimation is difficult and can be inaccurate; in particular, long-tail liability policies tend to produce claims long after the policies are written.

The reserve for future claims liabilities was set aside in an unusual way. The syndicate bought a RITC policy to pay any future claims; the premium was equal to the amount of the reserve. This transaction allowed the year to be closed, and the syndicate's profit or loss declared. The reinsurer was always another Lloyd's syndicate(s), often the succeeding year of the same syndicate: the members of syndicate '1' in 1985 reinsured the future claim liabilities for members of syndicate '1' in 1984. The membership might be the same, or it might have changed.

In this manner, liability for past losses could be transferred year after year until it reached the current syndicate. A member joining a syndicate with a long history of such transactions could – and often did – pick up liability for losses on policies written decades previously. As long as the reserves had been accurately estimated, and the appropriate RITC premium paid every year, then all would have been well, but in many cases this had not been possible: no-one could have predicted the surge in APH losses. Therefore, the amounts of money transferred from earlier years by successive RITC premiums to cover these losses were grossly insufficient, and the current members had to pay the shortfall.

As a result, a great many Names whose syndicates wrote long-tail liability at Lloyd's faced significant financial loss or ruin by the late 1980s to mid-1990s.

====Dilution of liabilities and the consequences====
It was alleged that in the early 1980s some Lloyd's officials began a recruitment programme to enroll new Names to help capitalise Lloyd's prior to the expected onslaught of APH claims. This allegation became known as "recruit to dilute": in other words, recruit more Names to dilute the losses. When the huge extent of asbestosis losses came to light in the early 1990s, for the first time in Lloyd's history large numbers of members either were unable to pay the claims or refused, many alleging that they were the victims of fraud, misrepresentation, and/or negligence. The opaque system of accounting at Lloyd's made it difficult, if not impossible, for many Names to understand the extent of the liability that they personally and their syndicates had subscribed to.

Also, numerous underwriters of long-tail non-marine business, concerned at their exposures to the impending asbestosis crisis, had sought to reinsure their liabilities with other carriers. Approximately 20 syndicates, including Lloyd's deputy chairman Murray Lawrence's, paid millions of pounds in premiums to Richard H. M. Outhwaite, then considered a highly capable marine underwriter, to assume approximately 80 per cent of the market's asbestos exposure on his well-supported syndicates 317/661 in 1982.<ref name=Hodgson/> In 1985, under Lloyd's three-year accounting rule, auditors kept Outhwaite's 1982 year open, citing concerns over asbestos and pollution liability losses. These eventually ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. After many years of litigation, Outhwaite retired to [[Guernsey]] and died on 20 November 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Henry Moffitt OUTHWAITE |website=Family Notices from the Guernsey Press |url=https://www.familynotices.gg/moreinfo/78770/outhwaite |access-date=2024-01-25 |language=en}}</ref>

Another asbestosis-hit operation, Pulbrook syndicates 90/334, had taken out reinsurance in 1981 on its general liability business with Merrett syndicate 418; however, in 1990 Stephen Merrett (who by now controlled Pulbrook) won an arbitration ruling to void that arrangement due to non-disclosure of the extent of asbestos exposure, leaving the Pulbrook Names without cover for their losses of £100,000 each on average. Even earlier, in 1974, the underwriter of R. W. Sturge syndicate 210, Ralph Rokeby-Johnson, who specialised in American industrial risks, bought "stop-loss" reinsurance from [[Fireman's Fund Insurance Company|Fireman's Fund]] and [[Kemper Corporation|Kemper Insurance]] in the US on Sturge's pre-1969 exposures that were accumulating into the present. This contract developed so poorly that Fireman's Fund later sought its own stop-loss cover for the losses assumed from Sturge. Rokeby-Johnson later prompted Lloyd's to create a [[working group|working party]] on asbestosis.<ref name=Luessenhop/>

====Reconstruction and Renewal====
During the mid-1990s the market was forced to restructure. Under the chairmanship of Sir David Rowland and chief executive Peter Middleton, an ambitious plan entitled "Reconstruction and Renewal" (R&R) was produced in 1995, with proposals for separating the ongoing Lloyd's from its past losses. Liabilities for all pre-1993 business (other than life assurance) were to be compulsorily transferred (by RITC) into a special vehicle named [[Equitas]] (which would require the approval of the UK's [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Department of Trade and Industry]]) at a cost of around $21bn.<ref>{{cite news |last=Eisenhammer |first=John |date=23 October 2011 |title=Equitas day: final act in the Lloyd's nightmare |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/equitas-day-final-act-in-the-lloyd-s-nightmare-1341264.html |work=The Independent |location= |access-date=28 March 2021}}</ref>

Many Names faced large bills, but the plan also provided for a settlement of their disputes, a tax on recent profits, and the write-off of nearly $5bn owed in the form of "debt credits", skewed towards those with the worst losses. The plan was debated at length, modified, and eventually strongly supported by the Association of Lloyd's Members (ALM) and most leaders of Names' action groups. New CEO [[Ron Sandler]] was instrumental in its implementation. Money was raised in many ways, including the sale and leaseback of the Lloyd's building, and a tax on future business. Individual offers of settlement were accepted by 95 per cent of Names. The past liabilities on the 1992 and prior years were transferred to Equitas in September 1996, including those under Lioncover and Centrewrite.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The "recruit to dilute" fraud allegations were heard in an eight-month trial in 2000 in the case ''Jaffray v. Society of Lloyd's'' and were rejected by the judge; an appeal was heard in 2002 and unanimously rejected. On each occasion the allegation that there had been a policy to recruit to dilute was dismissed and Names were urged to settle; however, at first instance the judge described the Names as "the innocent victims [...] of staggering incompetence" and the appeal court found that representations that Lloyd's had a rigorous auditing system were false and strongly hinted that one of Lloyd's main witnesses, former chairman Murray Lawrence, had lied in his testimony.<ref>{{cite BAILII|court=EWCA|division=Civ|year=2002|num=1101|litigants=Jaffray and others v. Society of Lloyds|date=26 July 2002}}</ref>

Lloyd's then instituted some major structural changes: corporate members with limited liability were permitted to join and underwrite insurance; no new unlimited-liability Names were allowed to join (although a few hundred existing ones remained); financial requirements for underwriting were changed, to prevent excess underwriting that was not backed by liquid assets; and market oversight significantly increased. Lloyd's rebounded and started to thrive again after the catastrophic losses arising out of the [[September 11 attacks|World Trade Center attack]], but it faced increased competition from newly-created companies in [[Bermuda]] and other markets.

In 2006 the [[Berkshire Hathaway]] subsidiary [[National Indemnity Company]] (NICO) agreed to assume all of Equitas' assets and liabilities, providing $7bn of new reinsurance cover for future claims payments in addition to the $8.7bn of existing reserves within Equitas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.equitas.co.uk/files/Names_Info_Doc_1206.pdf|title=Equitas limited agreement with National Indemnity Company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190215050413/http://www.equitas.co.uk/files/Names_Info_Doc_1206.pdf|archive-date=15 February 2019}}</ref> The transfer (in two phases between 2007 and 2009) represented "finality" under English law for all affected Names, who now faced "no further liability whatsoever" to the pre-1993 losses.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.equitas.co.uk/files/Equitas-LetterToNames1July2009.pdf|title=Finality under English Law|first=H. A. |last=Stevenson |date=1 July 2009|publisher=Equitas}}</ref>

In 2020, following the [[George Floyd protests]], Lloyd's issued a statement, apologising "for the role played by the Lloyd's market in the 18th and 19th century slave trade – an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own".<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 June 2020 |title=Building an inclusive Lloyd's marketplace |url=https://www.lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/news/lloyds-news/2020/06/building-an-inclusive-lloyds-marketplace |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707193204/https://www.lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/news/lloyds-news/2020/06/building-an-inclusive-lloyds-marketplace |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 July 2020 |access-date=29 October 2020 |publisher=Lloyd's of London}}</ref><ref name="KahnJ">{{Cite news |last=Kahn |first=Jeremy |date=18 June 2020 |title=George Floyd protests force Britain to reckon with its role in slavery, leading some companies to pay reparations |language=en |work=Fortune |url=https://fortune.com/2020/06/18/george-floyd-protests-uk-slavery-reparations/ |access-date=29 October 2020}}</ref><ref name=HoltonK>{{Cite news |last1=Faulconbridge |first1=Guy  |last2=Holton |first2=Kate |date=18 June 2020 |title=Lloyd's of London to pay for 'shameful' Atlantic slave trade role |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-lloydsofl-idUSKBN23P0SM |access-date=29 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Faulconbridge |first=Guy |date=18 June 2020 |title=Explainer: London faces up to former role insuring Atlantic slave trade |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-lloydsofl-idUSKBN23P2US |access-date=29 October 2020}}</ref>

==Structure==
Lloyd's is a market of members, not an insurance company. As the oldest continuously active insurance marketplace in the world, Lloyd's has retained some unusual structures and practices that differ from other insurance providers today. Originally created as a non-incorporated association of subscribing members, it was incorporated by the Lloyd's Act 1871 and is currently governed under the Lloyd's Acts of 1871 through to 1982.

Lloyd's does not underwrite insurance business itself – its members do. The Society effectively acts as a market regulator, setting rules under which members operate and offering centralised administrative services to them.

===Council of Lloyd's===
[[File:Lloyd's building Adam Room.jpg|thumb|The Council meets in the Committee Room, on the 11th floor of the Lloyd's building.]]
The Lloyd's Act 1982 defines the management structure and rules under which the market operates. Under the Act, the Council of Lloyd's is responsible for the management and supervision of the market. It is regulated by the [[Prudential Regulation Authority (United Kingdom)|Prudential Regulation Authority]] and the [[Financial Conduct Authority]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lloyds.com/Lloyds/About-Lloyds/Lloyds-governance-structure/Regulation-of-Lloyds |title=Regulation of Lloyd's |publisher=Lloyd's of London |date=31 December 2005 |access-date=20 March 2011 }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The Council normally has six working, six external and six nominated members.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lloyds.com/Lloyds/About-Lloyds/Lloyds-governance-structure/Council-of-Lloyds |title=Council of Lloyd's |publisher=Lloyd's of London |date=31 December 2005 |access-date=20 March 2011 }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The appointment of nominated members, including that of the chief executive officer, is confirmed by the [[Governor of the Bank of England]]. The working and external members are elected by Lloyd's members. The chairman and deputy chairmen are elected annually by the Council from among the working members of the Council. All members are approved by the regulating bodies.

The Council can discharge some of its functions directly by making decisions and issuing resolutions, requirements, rules and bylaws. The Council delegates most of its daily oversight roles, particularly relating to ensuring the market operates successfully, to the Franchise Board.

The Franchise Board lays down guidelines for all syndicates and operates a business planning and monitoring process to safeguard high standards of underwriting and risk management, thereby improving sustainable profitability and enhancing the financial strength of the market. The Board is chaired by the chairman of Lloyd's and has three executive members, three non-executives connected to the market and five independent non-executives.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lloyds.com/Lloyds/About-Lloyds/Lloyds-governance-structure/Lloyds_Franchise_Board |title=Franchise Board |publisher=Lloyd's of London |date=31 December 2005 |access-date=20 March 2011 }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

====Chair of Lloyd's====
The following is a list of the chair of Lloyd's since 1979:
* 1979–1983: Sir Peter Green
* 1984–1987: Sir Peter Miller
* 1988–1990: Murray Lawrence
* 1991–1992: David Coleridge
* 1993–1997: Sir David Rowland
* 1998–2000: Max Taylor
* 2001–2002: Sax Riley
* 2003–2011: [[Peter Levene, Baron Levene of Portsoken|Lord Levene]]
* 2011–2017: [[John Nelson (businessman)|John Nelson]]
* 2017–2025: [[Bruce Carnegie-Brown]]
* 2025–present: [[Charles Roxburgh|Sir Charles Roxburgh]]

====Chief executives of Lloyd's====
The following is a list of the chief executive officers of Lloyd's since the role was created in 1983:

* 1983–1985: [[Ian Hay Davison]]
* 1985–1992: Alan Lord
* 1992–1995: Peter Middleton
* 1995–1999: [[Ron Sandler]]
* 1999–2006: Nick Prettejohn
* 2006–2013: [[Richard Ward (businessman)|Richard Ward]]
* 2013–2018: [[Inga Beale]]
* 2018–present: John Neal

===Businesses at Lloyd's===
[[File:Inside Lloyd's of London.jpg|thumb|right|Interior escalators linking the underwriting floors of the Lloyd's building]]
There are two classes of people and firms active at Lloyd's. The first are members, or providers of capital. The second are agents, brokers, and other professionals who support the members, underwrite the risks and represent outside customers (for example, individuals and companies seeking insurance, or insurance companies seeking reinsurance).

====Members====
For most of Lloyd's history, rich individuals known as Names backed policies written at Lloyd's with all of their personal wealth and took on unlimited liability. Since 1994, Lloyd's has allowed corporate members into the market, with [[limited liability]]. The asbestosis losses in the early 1990s devastated the finances of many Names: upwards of 1,500 out of 34,000 Names (4.4 per cent) were declared bankrupt. This scared away other potential Names. In 2011 individual Names provide only 11 per cent of capacity at Lloyd's, with UK-listed and other corporate members providing 30 per cent and the remainder via the international insurance industry.<ref name=lloydspub>{{cite web |url=http://www.lloyds.com/~/media/Files/Lloyds/Investor%20Relations/2011/Annual%20results/Documents/AR2011_Lloyds_2011_Annual_Report.pdf |title=Lloyd's Annual Results 2011 |publisher=Lloyd's of London |date=31 December 2011 |access-date=28 September 2012 |archive-date=14 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114174406/http://www.lloyds.com/~/media/Files/Lloyds/Investor%20Relations/2011/Annual%20results/Documents/AR2011_Lloyds_2011_Annual_Report.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

No new Names with unlimited liability are admitted, and the importance of individual Names will continue to decline as they slowly withdraw, convert (generally into [[limited liability partnership]]s), or die. In 2014, Names with unlimited liability provided just 2 per cent of the overall capacity in Lloyd's.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

====Managing agents====
Managing agents sponsor and manage syndicates. They canvas members for commitments of capacity, create the syndicate, hire underwriters, and oversee all of the syndicate's activities. Managing agents may run more than one syndicate, as borne out in the fact that in 2023 the 78 syndicates writing business at Lloyd's were operated by just 51 managing agents.<ref name=AnnualReport2021/>

====Members' agents====
Members' agents co-ordinate the members' underwriting and act as a buffer between Lloyd's, the managing agents and the members. They were introduced in the mid-1970s and grew in number until many went bust; many of the businesses merged, and there are now only four left (Argenta, Hampden, Alpha and LMAS, which{{ambiguous|reason="the last of which"?|date=June 2025}} has no active Names). It is mandatory that unlimited Names write through a members' agent, and many limited liability members also choose to do so.

====Lloyd's coverholder====
Coverholders are a major source of business for Lloyd's. Their numbers have grown steadily in recent years and in 2021 there were 4,054,<ref name=AnnualReport2021/> producing an increasingly meaningful share of the market's overall premium income. The balance of Lloyd's business is distributed around the world through a network of brokers.

Coverholders allow Lloyd's syndicates to operate in a region or country as if they were a local insurer. This is achieved by Lloyd's syndicates delegating their underwriting authority to coverholders. A coverholder can have restricted or full authority to underwrite specified business on behalf of a Lloyd's syndicate. It will usually issue the insurance documentation and will often also handle claims. The document setting out the terms of the coverholder's delegated authority is known as a binding authority.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lloyds.com/The-Market/I-am-a/Coverholder/Prospective-Coverholder/Tell-me-more-about-coverholders |title=Tell me more about coverholders |publisher=Lloyd's of London |access-date=22 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310190019/http://www.lloyds.com/The-Market/I-am-a/Coverholder/Prospective-Coverholder/Tell-me-more-about-coverholders |archive-date=10 March 2012 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

====Lloyd's brokers====
Outsiders, whether individuals or other insurance companies, cannot transact business directly with Lloyd's syndicates. They must hire an approved Lloyd's broker, who are the only customer-facing organisations at Lloyd's. They are therefore often referred to as intermediaries. Lloyd's brokers shop customers' risks around the syndicates, trying to obtain the best coverage and most competitive terms.

====Integrated Lloyd's vehicles====
When corporations became admitted as Lloyd's members, they often disliked the traditional structure. Insurance companies did not want to rely on the underwriting skills of syndicates they did not control, so they started their own. An integrated Lloyd's vehicle (ILV) is a group of companies that combines a corporate member, a managing agent, and a syndicate under common ownership. Some ILVs allow minority contributions from other members, but most now try to operate on an exclusive basis.

===Financial security===
Lloyd's capital structure, often referred to as the "chain of security", provides financial security to policyholders and capital efficiency to members. The Corporation is responsible for setting both member and central capital levels to achieve a level of capitalisation that is robust and allows members the potential to earn superior returns.

There are three "links" in the chain: the funds in the first and second links are held in trust, primarily for the benefit of insureds whose policies are underwritten by the relevant member. Members underwrite for their own account and are not liable for other members' losses (i.e. liabilities are several, not joint).

The third link consists largely of the Lloyd's Central Fund, which contains mutual assets held by the Corporation which are available, subject to Council approval as required, to meet any member's liabilities. As well as the Central Fund, the third link contains Corporation assets, subordinated debt, and a "callable layer" which can be invoked should the final link require topping up.<ref name=lloydspub/>

==Financial performance==
Each Lloyd's syndicate is responsible for determining how much money to hold in reserve for its known liabilities and its estimated unknown liabilities, and each may choose to release some of its reserves for prior-year claims if it (and its independent auditors) deems it appropriate. Conversely, reserves may need to be strengthened if prior-year loss estimates deteriorate. Overall reserve releases can improve the syndicate's "accident year" combined ratio (the sum of the loss ratio and the expense ratio), whereas overall reserve increases can worsen the accident year combined ratio. The combined ratio after these reserve movements is known as the "calendar year" result.<ref name=AnnualReport2017/>

===Historical results===
Lloyd's worst results in its long history were in the 1989 through 1991 years, each producing overall losses of over £2bn; the late 1990s were also punctuated by repeated and significant underwriting losses.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.actuaries.org.uk/system/files/field/document/A3%20-%20Markus%20Gesman.pdf|title=Current underwriting challenges |author=Markus Gesmann |date=7 June 2016 |website=actuaries.org.uk |publisher=Lloyd's of London }}</ref> In 2001 the calendar year result was a 140 per cent combined ratio, driven largely by claims arising out of the [[September 11 attacks|World Trade Center attack]], reserve increases for prior-year liabilities and deteriorating pricing levels. However, the market subsequently enjoyed profitability in most years except those marked by unusual levels of large natural catastrophes. For example, the [[2005 Atlantic hurricane season]] (which included [[Hurricane Katrina]]) drove the Lloyd's overall combined ratio to 112 per cent, while the [[2017 Atlantic hurricane season|2017 Atlantic hurricanes]] coupled with [[2017 California wildfires|destructive wildfires in California]] caused the Lloyd's market to report a 114 per cent combined ratio result in that year.

===Recent results===
In its most recent annual report, for 2023, Lloyd's reported an underwriting profit of £5.91bn, plus a £4.75bn gain on investments to produce an overall pre-tax profit of £10.66bn, compared to a pre-tax loss of £769m in 2022. The 2023 calendar-year combined ratio was 84 per cent, which was Lloyd's best result since 2007. Gross premiums written totalled £52.1bn, which was an increase from £46.7bn in 2022, without taking exchange-rate fluctuations into account. Major losses in 2023 were considerably fewer than the previous year, which was marred by [[Hurricane Ian]].

The following table details some key financial metrics for the Lloyd's market for the past 10 years, as reported in each year's annual report:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" style="text-align: center; width: 50px;" | Year
! scope="col" style="width: 125px;" | Gross premiums written
! scope="col" style="width: 110px;" | Combined ratio<br />({{abbr|AY|Accident year, before prior-year reserve movements}})
! scope="col" style="width: 110px;" | Combined ratio<br />({{abbr|CY|Calendar year, after prior-year reserve movements}})
! scope="col" style="width: 100px;" | Pre-tax profit/(loss)
! scope="col" style="width: 75px;" | Pre-tax [[Return on capital|ROC]]
! scope="col" style="width: 25px;" | Ref
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2023
|style="text-align: center;"|£52,149m
|style="text-align: center;"|86.2%
|style="text-align: center;"|84.0%
|style="text-align: center;"|£10,663m
|style="text-align: center;"|25.3%
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref name=AnnualReport2023>{{cite web |url=https://assets.lloyds.com/media/3bda2895-4700-47fc-9117-515a62ee36ed/Lloyd's%20Annual%20Report%202023.pdf|title=Annual Report 2023 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=lloyds.com}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2022
|style="text-align: center;"|£46,705m
|style="text-align: center;"|95.5%
|style="text-align: center;"|91.9%
|style="text-align: center;"|(£769m)
|style="text-align: center;"|(2.0)%
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref name=AnnualReport2022>{{cite web |url=https://assets.lloyds.com/media/5070d2bd-3819-4e31-b1e3-c67c656e5eb8/Lloyds-Annual-Report_2022.pdf|title=Annual Report 2022 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=lloyds.com}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2021
|style="text-align: center;"|£39,216m
|style="text-align: center;"|95.6%
|style="text-align: center;"|93.5%
|style="text-align: center;"|£2,277m
|style="text-align: center;"|6.6%
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref name=AnnualReport2021>{{cite web |url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/investor-relations/financial-performance/financial-results/full-year-results-2021|title=Annual Report 2021 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=lloyds.com}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2020
|style="text-align: center;"|£35,466m
|style="text-align: center;"|112.1%
|style="text-align: center;"|110.3%
|style="text-align: center;"|(£887m)
|style="text-align: center;"|(2.8%)
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref name=AnnualReport2020>{{cite web |url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/investor-relations/financial-performance/financial-results/annual-results-2020|title=Annual Report 2020 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=lloyds.com}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2019
|style="text-align: center;"|£35,905m
|style="text-align: center;"|103.0%
|style="text-align: center;"|102.1%
|style="text-align: center;"|£2,532m
|style="text-align: center;"|8.8%
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref name=AnnualReport2019>{{cite web |url=https://lloyds.foleon.com/annual-report-2019/annual-report-2019/downloads/|title=Annual Report 2019 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=lloyds.com}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2018
|style="text-align: center;"|£35,527m
|style="text-align: center;"|108.4%
|style="text-align: center;"|104.5%
|style="text-align: center;"|(£1,001m)
|style="text-align: center;"|(3.7%)
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref name=AnnualReport2018>{{cite web |url=https://www.lloyds.com/~/media/files/lloyds/investor-relations/2018/annuals/annual-report.pdf|title=Annual Report 2018 |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=lloyds.com}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2017
|style="text-align: center;"|£33,591m
|style="text-align: center;"|116.9%
|style="text-align: center;"|114.0%
|style="text-align: center;"|(£2,001m)
|style="text-align: center;"|(7.3%)
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref name=AnnualReport2017>{{cite web|url=https://www.lloyds.com/~/media/files/lloyds/investor-relations/results/2017ar/ar2017_annual-report-2017.pdf|title=Annual Report 2017|author=<!--Not stated-->|website=lloyds.com|access-date=25 March 2018|archive-date=23 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523190727/https://www.lloyds.com/~/media/files/lloyds/investor-relations/results/2017ar/ar2017_annual-report-2017.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2016
|style="text-align: center;"|£29,862m
|style="text-align: center;"|103.0%
|style="text-align: center;"|97.9%
|style="text-align: center;"|£2,107m
|style="text-align: center;"|8.1%
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lloyds.com/AnnualReport2016/|title=Annual Report 2016|website=lloyds.com|access-date=19 May 2017|archive-date=19 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919111523/https://www.lloyds.com/AnnualReport2016/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2015
|style="text-align: center;"|£26,690m
|style="text-align: center;"|97.9%
|style="text-align: center;"|90.0%
|style="text-align: center;"|£2,122m
|style="text-align: center;"|9.1%
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lloyds.com/annualreport2015/assets/pdf/lloyds_annual_report_2015.pdf/|title=Annual Report 2015|website=lloyds.com|access-date=23 September 2018|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202003411/http://www.lloyds.com/annualreport2015/assets/pdf/lloyds_annual_report_2015.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|style="text-align: center;"|2014
|style="text-align: center;"|£25,283m
|style="text-align: center;"|96.1%
|style="text-align: center;"|88.1%
|style="text-align: center;"|£3,161m
|style="text-align: center;"|14.7%
|style="text-align: center;"|<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lloyds.com/AnnualReport2014/pdfs/Lloyds%20Annual%20Report%202014.pdf|title=Annual Report 2014|website=lloyds.com|access-date=20 May 2017|archive-date=21 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221224156/http://www.lloyds.com/annualreport2014/pdfs/lloyds%20annual%20report%202014.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|}

==Timeline of significant events at Lloyd's==
* 1686 Earliest reference to [[Lloyd's Coffee House|Edward Lloyd's coffee house]] on [[Great Tower Street|Tower Street]]
* 1691 Coffee house relocated to [[Lombard Street, London|Lombard Street]]
* 1774 Society of Lloyd's founded at the [[Royal Exchange, London|Royal Exchange]]
* 1783 [[Zong massacre|''Zong'' massacre]] trial<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.swissre.com/item_detail.php?id=6|title=Kaleidoscope of Insurance History|website=Swiss Re}}</ref>
* 1799 Sinking of {{HMS|Lutine|1779|6}}
* 1871 Lloyd's Act
* 1906 [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|San Francisco earthquake]]
* 1909 Sinking of {{RMS|Republic|1903|6}}
* 1911 Lloyd's Act
* 1912 [[Sinking of the RMS Titanic|Sinking of RMS ''Titanic'']]
* 1914 Sinking of {{RMS|Empress of Ireland}}
* 1925 Market relocated to its first owned building, at 12 [[Leadenhall Street]]
* 1955 Supported the [[Montgomery bus boycott]] by insuring the civil rights volunteers' [[carpool]] fleet after local insurers refused to
* 1956 Sinking of {{SS|Andrea Doria}}
* 1958 Market relocated to new owned building, at 51 [[Lime Street, London|Lime Street]]
* 1965 [[Hurricane Betsy]]
* 1968 [[Rowland Baring, 3rd Earl of Cromer|Cromer]] report published
* 1977 F. H. "Tim" Sasse syndicate scandal<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spreadingtherisks.com/Lloyds.asp|first=Jack |last=Bogardus |title=The Lloyd's Market|website=Spreading the Risks|access-date=17 April 2011|archive-date=23 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723095255/http://www.spreadingtherisks.com/Lloyds.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.truthaboutlloyds.com/news/news_obs_080598.html |title=Wanted Underwriter to be Forced to Testify |website=Truth About Lloyds |date=5 August 1998 |access-date=22 March 2012}}</ref>{{unreliable source|reason=No authorship information|date=June 2025}}
* 1978 {{ship||Amoco Cadiz}} disaster<ref name="Hodgson">{{cite book|last=Hodgson|first=Godfrey|title=Lloyd's of London: A Reputation at Risk|year=1984|publisher=Elisabeth Sifton Books – Viking Penguin |location=New York|isbn=0-670-43595-3}}</ref>
* 1977 Computer leasing losses emerged<ref name=Hodgson/>
* 1979 [[Whiddy Island disaster|''Betelgeuse'' incident]]; [[Three Mile Island accident]]<ref name=Hodgson/>
* 1980 Asbestos Working Party created to monitor the increasing losses from asbestos injury
* 1982 Accountants Neville Russell warned that assessing the losses from asbestos injury was "an impossibility"
* 1982 Lloyd's Act
* 1986 Market relocated to the current [[Lloyd's building]], at 1 Lime Street
* 1988 [[Piper Alpha]] disaster<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lloyds.com/lloyds/about-us/history/catastrophes-and-claims/piper-alpha|title=1988 The Piper Alpha explosion |publisher=Lloyd's of London|access-date=20 May 2017|archive-date=28 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628144149/https://www.lloyds.com/lloyds/about-us/history/catastrophes-and-claims/piper-alpha|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 1989 [[Exxon Valdez oil spill|''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill]]; [[Hurricane Hugo]]; [[1989 Loma Prieta earthquake|Loma Prieta earthquake]]
* 1989 Lloyd's Community Programme founded, with first chairman [[Michael Wade (Trafalgar Park)|Michael Wade]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fundraising.co.uk/newswire/2009/02/07/lloyd039s-community-programme-celebrates-its-20th-year |title=Lloyd's Community Programme celebrates its 20th year |date=7 February 2009 |access-date=10 December 2012}}</ref>
* 1990s Escalation of the [[asbestosis]] affair and London market excess of loss (LMX) spiral
* 1991 [[Typhoon Mireille]]
* 1992 [[Hurricane Andrew]]
* 1993 [[1993 Bishopsgate bombing|Bishopsgate bombing]]<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=1993: IRA bomb devastates City of London |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/24/newsid_2523000/2523345.stm |work=BBC News |location= |date=24 April 1993 |access-date=24 March 2021}}</ref> and subsequent establishment of [[Pool Re]]<ref>{{cite legislation UK|type=act|act=Reinsurance (Acts of Terrorism) Act 1993|year=1993|chapter=18|mode=cs1}}</ref>
* 1994 [[1994 Northridge earthquake|Northridge earthquake]]
* 1994 Hardship Scheme set up to help Names whose losses exceeded their assets
* 1996 [[Equitas]] set up to harbour all pre-1993 exposures<ref>{{cite news |last=Griffiths |first=Katherine |date=6 October 2011 |title=Equitas day: final act in the Lloyd's nightmare |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/equitas-day-final-act-in-the-lloyd-s-nightmare-1341264.html |work=The Independent |access-date=28 March 2021}}</ref>
* 2000 A group of Names led by Sir William Jaffray issue court proceedings alleging fraud
* 2001 [[September 11 attacks|World Trade Center attack]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Eisenhammer |first=John |date=23 October 2011 |title=Lloyd's faces huge new claims for Ground Zero compensation |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lloyd-s-faces-huge-new-claims-for-ground-zero-compensation-493033.html |work=The Independent |access-date=28 March 2021}}</ref>
* 2004 [[2004 Atlantic hurricane season|Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne]]
* 2005 [[2005 Atlantic hurricane season|Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Treanor |first=Jill |date=1 December 2005 |title=US hurricanes cost Lloyd's of London a record £2.9bn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/dec/01/hurricanes2005.money |work=The Guardian |access-date=15 April 2022}}</ref>
* 2006 [[Berkshire Hathaway]] assumed Equitas liabilities<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Berkshire Steps Up for Equitas |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116156280928100432 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=22 October 2006 |access-date=28 March 2021}}</ref>
* 2010 [[Deepwater Horizon explosion|''Deepwater Horizon'' disaster]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Crowley |first=Kevin|date=26 May 2010 |title=Lloyd's Sees Deepwater Horizon Claims at $600 Million |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-05-26/lloyd-s-of-london-sees-net-pretax-claims-from-chile-quake-at-1-4-billion |work=Bloomberg |access-date=24 March 2021}}</ref>
* 2011 [[2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami|Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Neligan |first=Myles|date=28 March 2012 |title=Lloyd's of London swings to second-worst loss |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lloydsoflondon-idUSBRE82R06F20120328 |work=Reuters |access-date=24 March 2021}}</ref>
* 2013 [[Inga Beale]] appointed first female chief executive officer of Lloyd's<ref>{{cite news|author=Maria Tadeo |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lloyds-of-london-appoints-first-ever-female-chief-executive-inga-beale-9008099.html |title=Lloyd's of London appoints first ever female chief executive Inga Beale |work=The Independent |date=16 December 2013}}</ref>
* 2017 [[2017 Atlantic hurricane season|Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria]]<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Lloyd's of London estimates Maria claims of $900 million, cuts Harvey, Irma estimates |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-insurance-hurricane/lloyds-of-london-estimates-net-claims-for-hurricane-maria-of-900-million-idUKKBN1CS1SH?edition-redirect=uk |work=Reuters |date=23 October 2017 |access-date=24 March 2021}}</ref> and [[2017 California wildfires|California wildfires]]
* 2020 [[COVID-19 pandemic]] resulted in the first ever temporary closure of Lloyd's building<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Coronavirus: Lloyd's of London expects to pay out £5bn in claims |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54091653 |work=BBC News |date=10 September 2020 |access-date=24 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Makortoff |first=Kalyeena|date=1 September 2020 |title=Lloyd's of London reopens building for first time since March |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/01/lloyds-of-london-reopens-building-for-first-time-since-march |work=The Guardian |access-date=24 March 2021}}</ref>
* 2022 [[Hurricane Ian]] and losses arising out of the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]]
* 2024 [[Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse|Baltimore Key Bridge collapse]]

==Types of policies==

Lloyd's syndicates write a diverse range of policies, both direct insurance and reinsurance, covering property, casualty, marine, energy, motor, aviation and many other types of risk.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lloyds.com/join-lloyds-market/what-we-insure |title=What Lloyd's insures – Lloyd's |publisher=Lloyds.com |access-date=13 May 2021 }}</ref> Lloyd's also has a unique niche in unusual, specialist business such as kidnap and ransom, fine art, specie, aviation, war, satellites, personal accident, bloodstock, and other insurances.

Lloyd's is famous for writing policies to cover famous, unusual, or bizarre events. For example, Lloyd's has insured:

;Groups
* A comedy theatre group against the risk of a member of their audience dying of laughter<ref name=BBCarticle/>

;Inanimate objects
* Participating automobiles in the carpools involved in the [[Montgomery bus boycott]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |last2=Blakemore |first2=Erin |title=How Automobiles Helped Power the Civil Rights Movement |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-automobiles-helped-power-civil-rights-movement-180974300/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref>
* A grain of rice with a portrait of [[Queen Elizabeth II]] and [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]] engraved on it for $20,000<ref name=BBCarticle/>
* The development of the [[One World Trade Center|new World Trade Center]] with workers' compensation, general liability, excess liability and speciality insurance programmes<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lloyds.com/Lloyds/About-Lloyds/What-we-do/What-lloyds-insures/Case-studies |title=Case studies – About Lloyd's – Lloyd's |publisher=Lloyds.com |date=31 December 2005 |access-date=20 March 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

;People
* The bodies of several [[professional wrestler]]s, including [[Brian Adams (wrestler)|Brian Adams]], [[Ric Flair]], [[Bret Hart]], [[Curt Hennig]], Joe Laurinaitis (better known as [[Road Warrior Animal]]) and [[Rick Rude]]. However, as of 2017, [[Dave Meltzer]] reported that they no longer insure wrestlers.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-radio/wor-wrestlemania-2018-raw-tokyo-dome-ronda-rousey-more-227526|title=WOR: WrestleMania 2018, Raw, Tokyo Dome, Ronda Rousey, more!|date=2 January 2017|newspaper=WON/F4W – WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, UFC News, UFC results|access-date=2 January 2017}}</ref>
* [[Toni Braxton]]'s, [[Celine Dion]]'s, [[Bob Dylan]]'s, [[Whitney Houston]]'s, and [[Bruce Springsteen]]'s vocal cords<ref name=hsw/>
* [[Marlene Dietrich]]'s, [[Betty Grable]]'s,<ref name=BBCarticle>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/93003.stm |title=Lloyd's: insuring the famous and the bizarre |work=BBC News |date=29 October 1999 |access-date=20 March 2011}}</ref> [[Brooke Shields]]'s, [[Tina Turner]]'s and [[Mary Hart]]'s legs{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}
* [[Ken Dodd]]'s teeth for $7.4m<ref name=hsw/>
* [[Michael Flatley]]'s legs for $47m<ref name=hsw/> (the policy was only in effect when he was touring, and forbade him from dancing except on stage)
* Cricketer [[Merv Hughes]]' trademark walrus mustache while playing for Australia between 1985 and 1994<ref name=hsw>{{cite web|url=http://people.howstuffworks.com/9-odd-things-insured-by-lloyds-of-london.htm |title=HowStuffWorks '9 Odd Things Insured by Lloyds of London' |publisher=People.howstuffworks.com |date=14 September 2007 |access-date=20 March 2011}}</ref>
* [[Keiran Lee]]'s penis for $1m<ref name=klee>{{cite web|url=https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/british-porn-star-insures-penis-1m-286849|title=British Porn Star Keiran Lee Insures Penis For $1m|date=24 January 2012|access-date=2 May 2018}}</ref>
* The hands of the 1932 World Yo-Yo Champion [[Harvey Lowe]]<ref name=hsw/>
* [[Troy Polamalu]]'s hair for $1m<ref>[https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=5513644 Troy Polamalu has hair insured] ESPN.com, [[Associated Press]] report. 30 August 2010</ref>
* Food critic and gourmet [[Egon Ronay]]'s taste buds for £250,000<ref name=BBCarticle/>
* [[Pat McAfee]]'s legs during his [[franchise tag]] season with the [[Indianapolis Colts]]<ref>{{Cite tweet|title=If anyone is wondering how the insurance policies work in case of an injury I had a "Lloyds of London" policy on my legs during my Franchise tag season and it is quite a hustle #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE |user=patmcafeeshow |number=1225078201401200640 |date=5 February 2020 |access-date=16 July 2020|website=Twitter|language=en}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=September 2023}}
* [[Will Smith]]'s stunt bungee jumping out of a helicopter into the [[Grand Canyon]] on his 50th birthday, for $200m<ref name=wsmith>{{cite web |url=https://lifeinsurance.kz/en/happy-life/pryzhok-uilla-smita-byl-zastrahovan-na-200-mln |title=Will Smith's leap was insured for $200 million |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123043332/https://lifeinsurance.kz/en/happy-life/pryzhok-uilla-smita-byl-zastrahovan-na-200-mln |archive-date=23 January 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Miscellaneous==
[[File:Lloyd's building Lutine Bell.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''Lutine'' bell, housed in the [[Rostrum (ship)|rostrum]] in the main Underwriting Room]]

The present [[Lloyd's building]], at 1 [[Lime Street, London|Lime Street]], was designed by architect [[Richard Rogers]] and was completed in 1986. It stands on the site of the old Roman Forum. The 1925 building's facade survives, appearing strangely stranded with the modern building visible through the gates on the northern side on [[Leadenhall Street]]. In 2011 it became a [[listed building]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Glancey|first=Jonathan|title=How we learned to love the Lloyds building|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2011/dec/19/lloyds-building-richard-rogers|work=The Guardian|access-date=19 December 2011|location=London|date=19 December 2011}}</ref>

In the main Underwriting Room of Lloyd's stands the [[HMS Lutine (1779)|''Lutine'' bell]], salvaged in 1858, which was rung when the fate of a ship "overdue" at its destination port became known.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lloyd's buildings |url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/lloyds-buildings |website=Lloyd's of London |access-date=7 February 2021}}</ref> If the ship was safe, the bell would be rung twice; if it had sunk, the bell would be rung once. (This had the practical purpose of immediately stopping the sale or purchase of "overdue" reinsurance on that vessel.) Nowadays it is only rung for ceremonial purposes, such as the visit of a distinguished guest, or for the annual [[Remembrance Day]] service and anniversaries of major world events.

Brokers and underwriters are still normally held to, and apparently prefer, a more formal style of attire than many nearby City of London banks and financial institutions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/business/cityspy/city-spy-how-to-store-future-wealth-for-your-kids-10372073.html|title=City Spy: How to store future wealth for your kids|last=Dunkley|first=Jamie|date=7 July 2015|work=[[London Evening Standard]]|page=39}}</ref>

===Arms===
{{Infobox COA wide
|image             = Lloyds_of_London_Coat_of_Arms.svg
|crest             = Upon waves of the sea a representation of H.M.S. La Lutine, 32-gun frigate, in full sail, all proper.
|escutcheon        = Per fesse Argent and Azure, in chief a Cross within the dexter canton a sword erect Gules, and in base a fouled anchor in bend sinister Or.
|supporters        = A Sea Lion, proper, the head and mane Or, supporting a Trident erect, also proper.
|motto             = '''Fidentia'''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_insurance-eastern-underwriter_1927-02-11_28_6 |title=The Eastern Underwriter 1927-02-11: Vol 28 Iss 6|date=11 February 1927 |access-date=27 February 2024}}</ref>
}}

==See also==
* [[BS 1088]] – Marine materials standard
* [[Jonathan's Coffee-House]] – original home of the [[London Stock Exchange]]
* [[Lloyd's Law Reports]]
* [[Lloyd's List]]
* [[Lloyd's Open Form]]
* [[Lloyd's Register]]
* [[Lloyd's unlimited rating]]
* [[Shipping line]]
{{Portal bar|London|Companies}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Brown, Antony. ''Hazard Unlimited: The Story of Lloyd's of London''. [[Peter Llewelyn Davies|Peter Davies]], 1968.
* Brown, Antony. ''Cuthbert Heath: The Maker of Modern Lloyds''. [[David & Charles]], 1980. {{ISBN|9780715379424}}.
* Carter, Robert L., and Peter Falush. "Lloyd’s of London" in ''The British Insurance Industry Since 1900'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) pp.&nbsp;126–134.
* Duguid, Andrew. ''On the Brink: How a Crisis Transformed Lloyd's of London''. [[Palgrave Macmillan]], 2014. {{ISBN|9781137299291}}.
* Flower, Raymond, and Michael Wynn. ''Lloyd's of London, an Illustrated History'' (1974)
* Gibb, D. E. W. ''Lloyd's of London: A Study in Individualism'' (1972)
* Herschaft, Jeremy A. [http://uniset.ca/lloydata/29TulaneMaritimeLJ169.pdf "Not your average coffee shop: Lloyd's of London—a twenty-first-century primer on the history, structure, and future of the backbone of marine insurance"]. ''Tulane Maritime Law Journal'' 29 (2004): 169–185.
*  Lane, Nicholas. [https://www.historytoday.com/archive/origins-lloyd%E2%80%99s "The Origin of Lloyd's"]{{subscription required}}. ''History Today'' (Dec 1957) 7#12 pp.&nbsp;848–853
* [[Adam Raphael|Raphael, Adam]], ''Ultimate Risk: The Inside Story of the Lloyd's Catastrophe''. [[Four Walls Eight Windows]], 1994. {{ISBN|978-1-56858-056-2}}.

== External links ==
* {{Official website}}
* [http://www.lloyds.com/The-Market/Tools-and-Resources/Lloyds-Agency-Department/ Lloyd's Agency Department]
* [http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=3195735 Special report on Lloyd's in ''The Economist'' (18 September 2004)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000511191955/http://www.time.com/time/europe/lloydsfile/index.html ''Time'' magazine report on Lloyd's (February 21t., 2000)]
* [http://www.lisan.com.au Independent analysis of Lloyd's] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526054314/http://www.lisan.com.au/ |date=26 May 2006 }}
* [http://www.alm.ltd.uk/ Association of Lloyd's Members]
* [https://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2008-09-14-lloyds-lawsuit-advice_N.htm USA Today Q&A with CEO Richard Ward, September 2008]

===Data===
* [http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/41/41174.html Yahoo! – Lloyd's Company Profile]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060823214929/http://www.camvista.com/england/other/beazley01.php3 Lloyd's of London's webcam]
* [http://www.uniset.ca/lloyds_cases/lloyds_cases.html Lloyd's litigation database]
* [http://www.lisan.com.au/ Commentary on Lloyd's] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526054314/http://www.lisan.com.au/ |date=26 May 2006 }}

{{Economy of the United Kingdom}}
{{Insurance}}
{{Major insurance companies}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1686 establishments in England]]
[[Category:British brands]]
[[Category:Economy of London]]
[[Category:Financial services companies established in the 17th century]]
[[Category:Insurance in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Organisations based in the City of London]]
[[Category:Organizations established in the 1680s]]
[[Category:Reinsurance]]
[[Category:Ig Nobel laureates]]