Key Issues

The October issue of ALM News was written prior to Hurricane Sandy, with the exception of the following text in brackets which appeared on page 5: "(NB. As we go to press, Hurricane Sandy has been battering the North-East of the USA, but initial impressions are that the impact on Lloyd’s profits may not be huge, perhaps between 2% and 3% of capacity.)"

Chairman's letter to Members 

ALM Chairman Alan Lovell's letter to members sent today by email and by post to those members we do not hold email addresses for tomorrow.

Set out below are edited synopses of the speeches made by Alan Lovell, the new Chairman of the ALM, and Sean McGovern, Lloyd’s Director, North America and General Counsel, at the ALM’s Autumn Conference on 4th September 2012

Lloyd’s has announced today that its estimated net claims from the Thai floods towards the end of last year amount to some US$2.2bn, assuming an overall insured loss to the global insurance industry of US$15bn to 20bn. To put this in perspective, it is higher than Lloyd’s $1.95bn initial estimate last May for the Japanese earthquake. The $2.2bn includes approximately $0.7bn which has widely been reported as the figure for RJ Kiln Syndicate 1880, which is covered by a legally binding guarantee from the owners of RJ Kiln, Tokio Marine.

Further to the article on personal stop loss on page 10 of the December issue of ALM News, the ALM was advised by Charles Taylor Services today "that we have now sold 73 units of cover for 2012 which means that we have exceeded the minimum requirement for the scheme to go ahead. We will be sending letters in the next couple of days to those Names who have applied for cover confirming that the scheme is now up and running."

The ALM provided an update to its website entry of 15th March 2011 (see below) on the Japanese earthquake to its members in the April 2011 issue of ALM News. Since then, Lloyd’s has announced its own estimate of the cost of the three major catastrophes which have hit it in the first quarter of 2011, as follows:-

Japanese earthquake US$1.95bn (£1.22bn @ $1.60: £1)

New Zealand earthquake US$1.2bn (£750m@ $1.60:£1)

Australia floods (Jan2011) US$650m (£406m@ $1.60: £1)

Earlier this afternoon, the Council of Lloyd’s appointed John Nelson to succeed Lord Levene as Chairman of Lloyd’s. This is the culmination of a long and thorough process led by the NACC – the Council’s appointments committee - and chaired by Dr Prindl (a Deputy Chairman of Lloyd's) to find the right individual to lead Lloyd’s.