Growing fears about the state of the world are pushing more people to take out insurance despite rising prices, Lloyd’s of London Chief Executive Officer John Neal said.
Rising inflation, recession concerns, climate threats and geopolitical tensions are making individuals and businesses increasingly wary of risks, according to the head of the insurance exchange. While in a normal year insurance would grow at the same rate as gross domestic product, it is now growing three times faster, Neal said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
“We are in an unusual period of time where insurance is growing very rapidly,” he said.
Lloyd’s reported a pretax profit of £3.9 billion ($4.9 billion) in the first six months of the year, compared with a loss of £1.8 billion a year earlier, when the war in Ukraine broke out. and concerns over the direction of inflation sent shockwaves. through world markets.
For the six-month period, Lloyd’s returned £1.8 billion on its investments, compared with a loss of £3.1 billion a year earlier, while its underwriting income more than doubled to £2.5 billion while losses from major claims fell. Meanwhile, the group wrote £29.3 billion in premiums, a jump from £24 billion in the same period a year ago.
“We’re reporting profits that haven’t been seen in decades,” Neal added.
According to Neal, insurance prices have generally increased about 9% in the past year. Lloyd’s of London mainly sells insurance for major events such as shipwrecks and natural disasters, with risks shared among its syndicates.
Photo: Lloyd’s CEO John Neal; Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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