Lloyd's in Crisis

The Insurance Scandal of the Twentieth Century

Edmund Lester

• Publisher: Whitefox Publishing Ltd
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781916797512
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Insurance
• Index: Business

As the leading insurance market in the world, Lloyd's of London was highly respected for its underwriting expertise and prestigious reputation - until it became embroiled in a scandal of catastrophic consequences in the late 1980s. This is the inside story of one of the most merciless insurance battles in British commercial history; a story of suspected fraud, misinformation, negligence and incompetence.
When Syndicate 418 voided a major reinsurance contract held by Marine Syndicate 334, it precipitated devastating losses and personal tragedy for many of 334's members. Facing potential financial ruin from skyrocketing asbestosis, pollution and DES claims, desperate Names banded together to enter a tumultuous legal fight that spanned a decade. As their Association fought for justice, the true extent of corporate malfeasance and institutional failings came to light. Against a backdrop of escalating legal disputes, regulatory interventions and financial turmoil, tensions rose and took their toll - families were torn apart, fortunes shattered and lives lost.
Lloyd's in Crisis offers a sobering account of the inner workings of the insurance industry and the profound human cost of corporate negligence. Meticulously researched and incredibly insightful, this is an unprecedented glimpse into Lloyd's of London's most notorious chapter; a pivotal time in the evolution of the Lloyd's market and the struggle for capital and accountability that still reverberates for its Names today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Trigger Warning
• Contents
• Lloyd’s Structure
• Independent Businesses Structure Post-Lloyd’s Act 1982 in Three Parts
• Syndicate 334 (1985) Names Association Steering Committee
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Many a Slip ’Twixt… Broker and Underwriter
• Chapter 2: Background to a Name’s Recruitment, Underwriting and Contemporary Events
• Chapter 3: Preparations to Form an Association: To Get ‘Our’ Money Back with Costs
• Chapter 4: Formation of the Syndicate 334 (1985) Names Association
• Chapter 5: Getting in Front of a Judge
• Chapter 6: Action in Her Majesty’s High Court of Justice
• Chapter 7: Continuing Uncertainties about Cash and Lloyd’s Solvency Concerns
• Chapter 8: Access to Assets by Liquidating Pulbrook Underwriting Management Ltd
• Chapter 9: Solution: Reconstruction and Renewal Plan to Mutualise the Market
• Epilogue: A Saviour? The Sage of Omaha
• Postscript: John Neal CEO on Why Lloyd’s of London ‘Had to Change’
• Appendix 1: Ode to the Committee of the Syndicate 334 (1985) Names Association
• Appendix 2: Timeline
• Appendix 3: Guide to Terminology
• Appendix 4: Extracts from Sir Adam Ridley’s 1995 Names’ Committee Interim Report
• Appendix 5: Rules of the Syndicate 334 (1985) Names Association
• Members of the Committee
• Application Form
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography
• Index
• List of Illustrations