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Joseph Inokotong, Abuja
In a bid to help the insurance market understand its possible overall losses from the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, Lloyd´s of London has asked its member firms to provide estimates of their potential current and final losses from the virus.
A spokesman of Lloyd´s who stated this on Tuesday added that “The situation is fast-moving and changing daily, leading to a high degree of uncertainty about the eventual type and scale of losses that may emerge”.
He pointed out that Lloyd´s was working with British and overseas regulators to formulate its response to the spread of the virus, using its experience of previous catastrophes.
Lloyd’s would ask its managing agents the same question in a month’s time, the spokesman said, and could ask for the information more frequently, as it expected “the loss estimates to move over time as the situation and our understanding develops”.
According to a report from Reuters, “Lloyd’s of London Chief executive John Neal said last week that the impact for the 330-year old commercial insurance market was likely to be felt through claims for supply chain disruption”.
The spokesman further stated that Lloyd’s closed its “underwriting room” in its City of London tower – where insurance deals take place face-to-face – for the first time for a day on Friday last week to see if the market was able to operate without it. The test was successful.
Risk modelling firms say they are not yet able to provide estimates of the global insurance losses from the virus. Lloyd’s made pre-tax losses of $2 billion in 2017 following large hurricanes and other natural disasters.
