Minister, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure today to open the Lloyd’s Office for the Benelux region here in Rotterdam.
This may be a new office, but our links to the region go back a long time. The Chairman of the first Society of Lloyd’s in the early 18th century was a Martin Van Mierop, a Dutch trader based in London, who chaired the first Society of Lloyd’s – my first predecessor if you will. He took Lloyd’s out of the coffee shop where we were founded and into the modern age.
His nationality comes as no surprise. England and Holland were at that time the two pre-eminent seafaring powers. In something of a reversal to today, ships sailed from west to east, most often from London, or Rotterdam or Amsterdam. Mapmaking, navigation and maritime innovation usually came from one of our two countries.
However, I was surprised when researching this visit, to discover not only that Amsterdam merchants were trading risk on the canal side over a hundred years before Edward Lloyd opened his coffee house in the City of London, but also that an insurance market was established here in Rotterdam in the early 17th century. However, as Lloyd’s prides itself on being the world’s oldest insurance market, perhaps the least said about these Dutch institutions, the better…
However, perhaps the best souvenir which we have from Holland, is the Lutine Bell which hangs in the Lloyd’s Underwriting Room. For over a hundred years, it rang once to alert underwriters of the loss of a ship or it rang twice to signify the safe arrival of a ship in port. It is still rung for major disasters such as the loss of the World Trade Centre or the Asian Tsunami.
The current Lloyd’s building is a high tech piece of architecture by Richard Rogers, but the bell remains the heart of the Lloyd’s building today.
What is the connexion with the Netherlands? The Lutine was a French warship which was captured by the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars. However, during a period of – shall we say tension – between the British and Dutch, which perhaps reached its height when the British Navy destroyed the Dutch fleet at the Battle of Camperdown, the Lutine was sent on an important mission. In October 1799, she was ordered to deliver a vast sum of gold and silver to Hamburg, whose economy was on the brink of collapse. In the days before wire transfer and internet banking, the Lutine was the instrument of an ambitious government bail out to save the economy.
But she sank. Just off the island of Terschelling, one of the Frisian Islands off the Dutch coast. The crew was lost and it was left to the Commander of the Squadron, to inform the Admiralty of his “extreme pain” at the loss.
It certainly was an extreme pain. Today’s valuation of the cargo is around 95 million euro. It was insured by Lloyd’s. We paid in full.
Over the next 150 years, he inevitable treasure hunt took place, with the British Navy, Lloyd’s underwriters and Dutch Government all launching salvage attempts and wrangling over who owned the rights to the wreck.
If you have any doubt about this, consult the Lloyd’s Act of 1871. We do!
Salvage attempts succeeded in rescuing the ship’s bell, but not her gold. So whilst the former hangs in state at Lloyd’s, the latter still sits under the North Sea. Perhaps our new office in Rotterdam will bring us luck!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
If our first three centuries have shown a measure of rivalry between Lloyd’s and the Benelux region, I am confident that has all changed. Insurance here is, as we have seen, a mature, thriving market. The Netherlands is Lloyd’s fourth largest European market providing an annual premium of over 200 million euros. Much of our business remains in the maritime, aviation and transport sectors, but we are keen to work with Dutch enterprise, both large and small, to assist them in managing their risks.
We can offer solutions for practically any cover which a European businesses needs, from liability to property. Despite the financial crisis, our capital security has remained strong with A+ ratings. And despite being a British Institution, we trade in over 200 countries with licences in over 80.
I am delighted that our latest office brings Lloyd’s back to the heart of the Benelux region. If Martin de Mierop was a Dutchman who found Lloyd’s first permanent premises in London, I am delighted to be the Chairman who finally returned the complement and opened an office in Rotterdam.
Finally, let me welcome Jan Kees de Jager, who has been the Dutch Minister of Finance twice and both during interesting times - first during the 2008 Financial Crisis and then at the time of more recent problems in the Eurozone. However, as you would expect from a man who set up his own successful IT firm whilst still at University here in Rotterdam, he has shown great fortitude and, evidently, he has managed to retain his youthful demeanour despite highly testing times.
Minister, thank you for agreeing to open this office with me today. Lloyd’s looks forward with great anticipation to working with the Dutch industry and helping its economy to manage its risks. You are very welcome today.
