Lloyd’s Of London unveils second-worst loss

Lloyd’s, which traces its origins back 324 years to a London coffee house where merchants insured ships, made a loss of £516m in 2011, it said today, compared with a £2.2bn profit the previous year.

The loss, reflecting the aggregate financial performance of the 80 competing insurance syndicates that make up the Lloyd’s market, is second only to the £3.11bn deficit it reported for 2001 following the September 11 attacks.

“Make no mistake, 2011 was a difficult year for the insurance industry,” Lloyd’s chief executive Richard Ward said in a statement.

“Given the scale of the claims, a loss is unsurprising.”

Last year was the second most expensive catastrophe year ever for the insurance industry, with total disaster-related claims of $107bn, according to insurance broker Aon Benfield.