Lloyds fights global losses
The changes in financial reporting requirements for the Lloyds insurance market demonstrates it is at last keeping up with the times, according to the chairman of the largest association of Lloyds names.
Link: Lloyds reform resolution passed
The full interview with Michael Deeny will appear on the website tomorrow
Michael Deeny – who chairs the names association ALM – believes new accounting rules, Lloyds’ survival of claims resulting from September 11 and the competitive gains made from falling stock markets mean that the insurancemarket faces a rosy future.
He also said that while other insurers worried about the effect of the collapse of world stock markets on their income, Lloyds was actually benefiting.
‘Insurance companies worldwide have lost over $200bn as a result of the falling stock markets. Lloyds has always been very conservative. Only 5% of its assets are in equities, the rest are in gilts and US federal bonds.So in fact Lloyds is actually making substantial profits.’
Although the World Trade Center attacks affected Lloyds substantially, costing the insurance market about £2bn,its survival made it stronger. The ALM chairmanadded: ‘Lloyds has an exciting future because it survived the World Trade Center, which is the biggest insurance loss in history.’