The market also achieved an underwriting profit of £1.2bn for the period
Lloyd’s of London has posted a combined operating ratio (COR) of 91.4% for the first half of 2022, according to the market’s financial results released yesterday (8 September 2022).
This result signifies an improvement from H1 2021, when Lloyd’s of London’s COR sat at 92.2%. John Neal, the market’s chief executive, said that this improvement of 0.8 percentage points marked “the strongest [result] since 2015”.
Lloyd’s also achieved an underwriting profit of £1.2bn for the first six months of 2022 – a £240k increase from 2021’s figure of £960k.
The market leveraged what it called “favourable trading conditions” to achieve £24bn in gross written premium (GWP) for H1 2022 – a 17.4% increase from last year’s figure of £20.5bn.
Neal explained that “almost 5% of that GWP growth is down to organic growth from both new and existing syndicates, while a further 5% were driven by foreign exchange benefit”.
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He added: “With political and economic uncertainty looming large over society, it’s more important than ever that insurers are ready to support [customers].
“Lloyd’s results today point to both the sustainable performance of our market and the resilience of our capital position, enabling us to continue supporting customers through whatever lies ahead.”
Uncertain times ahead
Commenting on interest rate rises, Neal said: “Rising interest rates, while prompting an unrealised investment loss on paper at the half year, will be good news for insurers in the long term as returns on assets strengthen in 2023 and beyond.
“Meanwhile, with the conflict in Ukraine continuing to inflict devastating consequences, we’ve taken proactive steps to protect our customers from the fallout while ensuring we can support them – and continue driving sustainable performance – through the uncertain times ahead.”
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