Lloyd's of London posts H1 loss due to Covid-19 insurance claims

[LONDON] Lloyd's of London recorded a pre-tax loss of £400 million (S$712.3 million) for the first half, battered by the coronavirus pandemic, the commercial insurance market said on Thursday.

Insurers around the world have paid out on event cancellation, travel, trade credit and business interruption policies due to the virus, with Lloyd's expecting the global bill for non-life insurers to reach more than US$100 billion.

Lloyd's, whose results are an aggregate of its more than 90 syndicate members, said it would pay out £2.4 billion in Covid-19-related claims for the first half, net of reinsurance.

Its first-half loss compared with a £2.3 billion profit for the first half of 2019.

Chief executive John Neal said the first half had been "an exceptionally challenging period".

Gross written premiums rose 1.7 per cent to £20 billion.

Combined ratio, a key measure of underwriting profitability, deteriorated to 110.4 per cent from 98.8 per cent a year earlier. A level above 100 per cent indicates an underwriting loss.

Excluding Covid-19 claims, however, combined ratio strengthened to 91.7 per cent, which Mr Neal said represented the positive impact of the market's "robust approach to performance management".

Lloyd's has required its members to ditch their worst-performing lines of business in recent years.

REUTERS