The words leadership, experience and trust were on everybody’s lips at Lloyd’s City Dinner in New York yesterday.
Hosted by Lloyd’s chairman Lord Levene, special guests included the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment HRH Prince Andrew the Duke of York.
A highlight of the annual City Dinner was the award of the Lloyd’s Gold Medal for Saving Life to airline pilot Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger III.
Capt Sullenberger was widely praised for safely ditching US Airlines Flight 1549 into the freezing Hudson River earlier this year after the aircraft suffered a bird strike.
All 155 passengers escaped serious injury thanks to the pilot’s masterful emergency landing.
“It doesn’t bear thinking about,” said Lord Levene, “But if the plane had landed 400 yards to the left or the right we would have been facing another 9/11.”
Capt Sullenberger is only the second person to receive a Lloyd’s Gold Medal for Saving Life in 173 years.
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Left to right: Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger; HRH Prince Andrew the Duke of York; Lord Levene, Lloyd's Chairman
Insurance market survives and thrives
Drawing a parallel to the crash of the financial markets, Lord Levene said that Lloyd’s insurance market had survived by sticking to what it is good at and showing strong leadership qualities.
“We focused on providing specialist insurance and not being lured into the exotic products that have been the downfall of a number of our competitors,” he said.
Lloyd’s recognises its responsibility to show leadership, Lord Levene said: “Lloyd’s is doing this through its 360 Risk Insight thought leadership programme, which is breaking new ground in the business world in reaching out to other sectors and indeed the world beyond commerce, to research and debate key issues of risk which will face us all in the future.”
Debating changes to financial services
Adding his voice to the debate about the path that the financial services industry should take ‘on the long road back to a new normality’, Lord Levene said that it is important for insurers not to avoid difficult discussions over crucial changes that need to be made within the financial services sector.
“There is a clear need for better regulation and both President Obama’s recent package of market regulatory reforms and the EU plans for regulation of banks will go some way to do this,” Lord Levene told his guests.
“We also can’t be lulled into thinking that protectionist policies, that seem to be becoming increasingly fashionable here, are our salvation," he continued. "They will serve only to exacerbate what is already an incredibly grim situation. Globalisation may have expedited the current crisis but nationalism is definitely not the right answer.”
Duke of York
In his speech, the Duke of York said that despite the financial storm, both London and New York remain the top two global financial centres, and were benefiting from a flight to safety. Both cities had shown resilience, inspiring greater confidence in their ability as long established centres to weather the financial crisis.
“The two great cities from which we herald and are joined together tonight—remain financial beacons for their respective nations—but we must recognise that significant changes need to be made,” the Duke of York said.
“Together we combine the best of our respective skills in drive, entrepreneurial spirit, energy and pace. We need to use these attributes to work together to put in place a new architecture to support future growth, address shortcomings and stimulate recovery.”
