Lloyd’s 2008 Underwriting Capacity at $31.66 Billion

In a brief announcement Lloyd’s confirmed that as of the 1st of January the underwriting capacity of its 75 operating syndicates totaled £15.95 billion ($31.66 billion). The syndicates are managed by 46 Managing Agents and supported by 176 brokers.

Lloyd’s noted that the “use of the term ‘underwriting capacity’ reflects the potential ability to underwrite business in a given year,” and is “unique to Lloyd’s and not directly comparable with terms used by other insurers.” The amount is the total capacity for all the syndicates as of a given date. It does not necessarily mean that each of them will write business up to this maximum amount. Nor does it mean that capacity may not be increased, if events, such as a major catastrophe, warrant it.

In order to eliminate the potential confusion, Lloyd’s said that “going forward we will discontinue the practice of issuing this forward looking statistic at the beginning of the year and introduce a new process for the release of data. This will involve gross written premium figures for the previous year being published every April in the Annual Report and will include a breakdown of Lloyd’s capital base and providers.”

Source: Lloyd’s – www.lloyds.com