Chairman's
statement

In 2024, Lloyd’s has once again demonstrated its value. With gross written premiums of £55.5bn and pre-tax profits of £9.6bn, Lloyd’s has built on its reputation as a place where the world’s most complicated risks are insured and where capital is effectively managed. 

Our market’s performance in 2024 underpins the important role we play in maintaining and strengthening the UK’s global leadership position in wholesale and commercial insurance. The performance of the market is not something we can ever take as a given. It is hard won – every day, on every transaction. Over the last eight years, the market has grown 65.4%; our attritional loss ratio has improved by 11.8 percentage points (pp); our expense ratio has reduced by 5.1pp; and we continue to attract new capital into the market. Aside from 2020, where we recorded extraordinary losses from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, our combined ratio has consistently improved; and our upgraded financial strength ratings now stand alongside the strongest players in our industry. This performance will be sustained only if we preserve our underwriting discipline and adopt new technology to become smarter at understanding and pricing risk. 

Our world faces very significant challenges: climate change, slow global economic growth, geopolitical uncertainty, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, persistent underinvestment in infrastructure and the growing threat from cyber attacks. Insurance has a role to play in identifying, managing, mitigating and protecting all of these risks. In 2024, we again demonstrated our ability to collaborate on the world’s most significant threats through our continued underwriting of Ukraine’s grain exports; our partnership with the United Nations to address disaster resilience in Small Island Developing States; our role as chair of the Earth and Space Sustainability Initiative Advisory Board and of the Insurance Task Force of the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

We have made progress on our ambition to see more women in senior leadership positions in the market and to increase our attractiveness as a place to build careers among underrepresented groups. In 2024, we celebrated ten years of the Dive In Festival, created by Lloyd’s, embraced by the London market and now taken up by the insurance industry globally, this year breaking attendance records with around 45,000 participants from 81 countries. 

In 2024, the Lloyd’s of London Foundation worked with 28 charities across the globe, donating a total of £1.6m to good causes in the areas of disaster relief, social mobility and education. 

Our commitment to modernising our market continues. However, disappointingly, the delivery of Blueprint Two has progressed more slowly than we planned. This is an extraordinarily complex project but, even while acknowledging that, we were forced to delay and replan the project, so missing the agreed timeline to deliver the new technology for the market. Management changes have increased our visibility and confidence in the project, the successful delivery of which is vital to the long-term prosperity of the market. 

2025 will also see changes to the leadership of the Corporation. This is my last year in role and I am delighted that Sir Charles Roxburgh will succeed me as Chair on 1 May. We also announced the long-planned retirement of Burkhard Keese, our Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the past six years. He will be succeeded by his deputy, Alexandra Cliff and she will become CFO also on 1 May. 

After six and a half years as Lloyd’s Chief Executive, John Neal announced in January that he would be stepping down. Under his leadership, the Corporation and the market have navigated many challenges, not least the pandemic, to deliver outstanding financial performance. John is leaving Lloyd’s in a much stronger position than when he arrived and I am very grateful to him for his huge contribution to the market’s success. 

As I complete my eight year term as Chair of this unique and extraordinary market, it remains for me to thank all those who work in the market for their support during my time in office, particularly colleagues on the Council of Lloyd’s and in the Corporation and to congratulate you on all you have achieved. It has been a privilege to serve the market.

Bruce Carnegie-Brown

Chairman, Lloyd's