Lloyd’s is ramping up business continuity preparations and reassurance for the market, our employees and customers in the event of an escalation of contingency measures due to COVID-19.
Following an Executive Committee meeting yesterday, we have taken the decision to test the resilience of the market and Corporation this Friday to ensure that we remain able to trade, should a real-life scenario require us to close the Underwriting Room at 1 Lime Street in London.
Market
Up to now, our business continuity team have assessed our readiness to continue trading if the Underwriting Room needs to be closed at any point. We now propose to stress test this.
For 24 hours on Friday 13 March (midnight – midnight) Lloyd’s will close the Underwriting Room in London and invoke our Emergency Trading Protocol.
This 24-hour exercise will provide valuable information on the effectiveness and ease of use of the protocol. We will inform the relevant regulators our plans.
Additionally, we will take this opportunity to deep clean the Underwriting Room and all public areas in the Lloyd’s building. All desks need to be clear for the deep clean to take place.
Corporation
We are also taking a number of steps to ensure the Corporation is equipped to support the market if the situation escalates.
• Stress testing our business continuity plans: on a single day between 16 – 20 March we will stress test our business continuity plans by requiring all employees (except the few employees required to support the market on site) to work from home.
• Moving to rota working: from next week, our Risk Management team will trial a system of rota working from the office and home. If this system proves workable (as it did in Singapore through February), from 28 March we will roll it out to other Corporation teams.
• Revised travel guidelines: Until 1 May 2020, there will be no international travel for business reasons by Corporation staff, unless approved by an Exco member. Attendance at any overseas conferences or other meetings will be cancelled.
• Meetings and events: internal meetings can still go ahead, however large meetings and events held on Lloyd’s premises will be reviewed on a case by case basis to determine if they can go ahead. No cancellation fees will be charged for events booked to take place in Lloyd’s building that are subsequently postponed or cancelled due to coronavirus-related concerns.
Customers
The Lloyd’s market is committed to being there when our policyholders need us the most. That means paying all valid claims as quickly as possible. In addition, we have set up a dedicated contact point to provide our policyholders with assistance and to help them find the right person to confirm cover or process a claim – this is available at [email protected]
Thank you for your support and do please get in touch if you have any questions.
Best wishes
John Neal
CEO
Lloyd’s