Lloyd’s records £697m half-year losses after series of disasters

LLOYD’S of London recorded losses of £697 million (€799.4m) yesterday following the insurance industry’s costliest half-year on record for catastrophes.

And Lloyd’s, concerned European governments may be unable to support lenders in a worsening debt crisis, has pulled deposits in some peripheral economies as the ECB provided dollars to one eurozone institution.

The specialist insurance market, which is made up of 88 underwriting syndicates, incurred £6.7bn (€7.6bn) in claims after major natural disasters in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.