Industry must be ‘open and transparent’ to attract global talent – Lomas

Insurance firms must be “open and transparent” if they want to be a destination for global and diverse talent, Mark Lomas, head of culture at Lloyd’s of London, has said.

Lomas made the comments during the 2024 Dive In Festival earlier this week (25 September 2024) after being asked about Lloyd’s acknowledging its historical role in the transatlantic slave trade.

In November 2023, Lloyd’s said that research from Black Beyond Data showed the marketplace ”played a significant role” in the trade and formed ”part of a sophisticated network of financial interests and activities that made these activities possible”.

Lloyd’s also issued a statement that apologised for its “shameful” history and vowed to redeem itself.

During a panel session entitled Reinvigorating Race, Lomas said: “We published a culture strategy that said we wanted to be a destination for global talent.

“If you want to be a destination for global talent and diverse talent, you have to be open and transparent.”

New video

In a bid to be transparent, a video was uploaded to the Lloyd’s website last November, which explored the historical connections to the transatlantic slave trade.

The video was part of the Underwriting Souls project, which came about following the research from Black Beyond Data.

Lomas said: “[The research] was both editorially independent, so Lloyds didn’t get to edit the narrative, and also financially independent. This is really important for a couple of reasons.

”Number one, it established credibility and trust because it was a high level of ethical consideration.

“The second was that [it] was never intended to be an academic report and the outcome of the research has been a digital humanities archive called Underwriting Souls that’s available for people to access all around the globe and will be supported in perpetuity by the Known Foundation.

“Hopefully, it will spark further interest and further research because it certainly lays out the complexity of the business that sat behind slavery.”