“We have implemented strongerperformance management measures which will remain an enduringfeaturing of how we go about our business,” Lloyd's CEO John Nealsaid in a press release. (Photo: The Associated Press/AlastairGrant)

Despite investment uncertainty and a year riddled with costly naturalcatastrophes, Lloyd's reported an aggregated market loss of$1.3 billion in 2018, close to half the aggregated market loss in2017.

Hurricanes Florence and Michael, Typhoon Jebi in Japanand wildfires in California led to major claims,costing Lloyd's market $3.9 billion, which contributed to acombined ratio of 104.5% in 2018. Despite this, its total assetsgrew by 9% to $149.9 billion, its net resources increased by 2% to$35.8 billion and its central assets alsosaw growth of 8% to $4.1 billion.

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Areas of improvement

At a time of global uncertainty and challenging marketconditions, Lloyd's 2018 aggregated results showed areas ofimprovement. After several years of rate softening, the pricingenvironment saw strengthening by 3.2% on renewal business and thebeginning of improvement in the attritional loss ratio, whichreduced 1.3% on the previous year.

“The market's aggregated 2018 results report a combined ratio of104.5%, and a £1.0 billion loss. This performance is notof the standard that we would expect of a market that has both theheritage and quality of Lloyd's,” Lloyd's CEO John Neal said in apress release. “We have implemented stronger performance managementmeasures which will remain an enduring featuring of how we go aboutour business. We expect these actions to deliver progressiveperformance improvement across the market beginning in 2019 and inthe years to come.”

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