Lloyd’s of London allows staff to work from home as heatwave hits the capital
Lloyd’s of London is allowing its staff to stay away from the historic City building as yet another heatwave threatens to hit London.
The home of the world’s leading specialist insurance and reinsurance marketplace has told staff they are able to use their judgement and work from home this week with temperatures in the Square Mile set to reach 33C, City PM understands.
Around 1,200 employees work for the company at the Lloyd’s Building, located at One Lime Street. But it is understood Lloyd’s office will remain fully open and offer air conditioning for all staff and insurance brokers and underwriters.
The insurance marketplace has even offered its employees complimentary ice cream in addition to Wimbledon and World Cup-themed refreshments in recent weeks, as temperatures regularly topped 30C.
Lloyds of London, which operates as a marketplace for brokers and underwriters to spread the risk of assets, is one of the City’s oldest firms, and traces its roots back to 1688, as a coffee house frequented by merchants and ship-owners.
ING advises return to office
This week’s sweltering temperatures will be far from the first time Square Mile firms have had to contend with record heat this year.
Last month, City PM revealed that firms including JPMorgan Chase, ING and Deutsche dropped desk orders during the June heatwave.
JPMorgan, which employs more than 13,0000 staff in London, opted to relax its notoriously strict return-to-office requirements during the high temperatures.
While ING dropped return-to-office requirements last month because the Met Office issued a red alert health warning, the Dutch bank is not urging staff to stay at home this week because no such caution is in place, City PM understands.
A recent report by ING cautioned that European heatwaves pose a serious risk to the region’s economic output.
While the impact of high temperatures usually focuses on farmers, builders and other labourers, heatwaves are increasingly threatening a “new downside risk for the European economy,” the bank warned.