Lloyds

Lloyd’s 

(Corporation of Lloyd’s), a British insurance association. One of the most important English monopolies, it is closely associated with powerful industrial monopolies and banks of Great Britain and other capitalist countries.

Lloyd’s originated in the late 17th century. It was named after E. Lloyd, the owner of a London coffee house where maritime insurance business was transacted. The charter of Lloyd’s was confirmed in 1871 by Lloyd’s Act. Subsequently, the corporation underwent changes as its operations expanded. In the early 20th century Lloyd’s expanded from maritime insurance to practically all forms of property and personal insurance. In 1970 it received insurance payments totaling £786 million.

Lloyd’s determines to a considerable extent the terms and business conditions for maritime and aviation insurance on the international market. In legal terms, Lloyd’s is an association of separate underwriting members who have joined together in insurance syndicates. In 1973 Lloyd’s had more than 7,000 members belonging to 261 syndicates. The corporation is headed by a committee that is in charge of exclusively organizational questions. As an association Lloyd’s is not responsible to the insured for the obligations of individual members. Insurance policies are negotiated by the members of Lloyd’s, each of whom is responsible at his own risk to the insured within the limits of the sum agreed upon. As distinguished from shareholders of insurance corporations, whose responsibility is limited to their share in the joint-stock capital, members of Lloyd’s use only their own capital in payments to the insured. Insurance policies may be concluded only through intermediary brokers of Lloyd’s.

Lloyd’s conducts 75 percent of its operations abroad. In 1972 receipts from insurance operations in other countries totaled £206 million, or nearly half of all receipts of the English insurance market from foreign operations.

Contacts with other monopolies within the country and with international organizations are made through associations of Lloyd’s. The oldest include the association of maritime underwriters of Lloyd’s, the Lloyd’s Underwriters Association (which handles fire insurance and other nonmaritime insurance), and Lloyd’s association of insurance brokers. In the early 18th century Lloyd’s began to publish a registry of ships. This served as the basis for an independent organization established with representation of the Lloyd’s committee: Lloyd’s Register of Shipping. The committee checks on the construction of ships, assigns ships to a specific class, and annually publishes a registry of ships of the merchant marine fleets of all countries, according to the port of registration. In 1856, Lloyd’s and other British insurance companies established the Salvage Association, which since 1867 has been incorporated officially as the Association for the Protection of Commercial Interests as Respects Wrecked and Damaged Property.

S. G. KARPOVICH