Lloyd’s chair says marketplace must ‘extend’ leading position
The new chair of Lloyd’s has vowed to “strengthen and extend” the insurance marketplace’s industry leading position after the sector was identified as a ‘frontier industry’ in the government’s newly minted Industrial Strategy.
In a speech seen exclusively by City PM, Sir Charles Roxburgh hailed the “success of Lloyd’s and the London insurance market”, saying there was “a lot to celebrate”.
“Since I started as Chair, I’ve often been asked: ‘What’s your vision for Lloyd’s?'” he said. “Simply put that is to strengthen and extend our leadership as the world’s pre-eminent marketplace for risk.”
The speech comprises some of Roxburgh’s first public remarks since he took over as chair of the world’s largest insurance marketplace in May after lengthy stints in the Treasury and at management consultancy giant McKinsey.
The former mandarin forms part of a new-look senior management team, having appointed insurance veteran Patrick Tiernan upon taking up his role heading up the Lloyd’s council.
Elsewhere in the speech, Roxburgh laid out the three top priorities he and Tiernan had set for the marketplace, which has been one of the City’s biggest success stories despite posting a drop in profit in its 2024 results.
Lloyd’s will hone in on protecting and preserving “the essential strength of Lloyd’s”, strengthening its “existing strategic partnerships” in fledgling fields like insurtech, and transforming how the group functions in the age of artificial intelligence, Roxburgh said.
The new chair also announced plans to launch an “extensive process of engagement with the market”, working with the council members and market associations to solicit industry views on how the Lloyd’s of the future should function.
His comments come at a pivotal time for Lloyd’s and the insurance industry at large, which was recently declared one of the ‘frontier industries’ within financial services as part of the government’s recent Industrial Strategy.
In what was the first explicit government-led plan for UK industry in eight years, the government heralded the “thriving” insurance sector as one of the industries “with the greatest potential to invest and grow”.
“My confidence in Lloyd’s future success is strengthened by the support we – and the rest of the insurance industry – is getting from this government,” Roxburgh told attendees at Lloyd’s Chair’s Reception.