Lloyd’s to cut up to 60 staff
LLOYD’S Corporation, the agency that manages the iconic London insurance market, could make up to 60 of its staff redundant in the next year as it squeezes its budget, it revealed yesterday.
In a letter to the more than 50 Lloyd’s managing agents on Monday, the Corporation said it would cut its budget by eight per cent or £17m in 2012 as it reduced the amount it charged members.
The cuts could require it to make close to seven per cent of its global workforce redundant, with the largest losses likely to be in London, where most staff are based.
The firm’s new chairman John Nelson and chief executive Richard Ward said the decision “recognises it has been a difficult year” for Lloyd’s insurers as high catastrophe losses and low rates and investment returns “have put the market under some strain”.
“It is only right the Corporation looks hard at where it can find efficiencies,” they said in the letter, but admitted “this level of budget reduction will be a challenge”.
Lloyd’s said it was scrapping a levy on its insurers to save them a combined £14m next year, and would hold its market service charges at 2011 rates.