Lloyd’s of London today reopened have a five-month shutdown due to the coronavirus crisis, with a reduced capacity.
The 334-year-old insurance market officially reopened after lockdown - its underwriting hall is at 45% capacity with clear screens on underwriting boxes and one-way systems to prevent the spread of Covid. Temperature checks and cleaning using fogging have also been introduced.
Lloyd’s has improved the vast, Richard Rogers designed building’s WiFi network, installed “digital booths” for video calling and created a “virtual room”, allowing the meetings at the market to be replicated online.
Chief executive John Neal had been attempting to revamp the market before the pandemic hit, updating its tech capabilities and stamping out a sexist culture which hit the headlines last year.
Today he told the Standard: “Throughout lockdown, the Lloyd’s market has continued to trade efficiently using digital platforms now embedded across our marketplace. This momentum has created an amazing opportunity for Lloyd’s to accelerate the implementation of digital enhancements and technology, including creating a virtual room that will enable brokers and underwriters to connect and collaborate online, alongside the physical trading environment.
“Together with a virtual room, the ability to physically represent the customer’s interests and explain their needs is becoming more important. With firms considering downsizing their office space in the City, the more vital Lloyd’s will be as a space to meet, convene, and transfer risk.”
Climate change campaigners targeted the reopening, gathering outside the Lime Street market calling for participants at the market to drop insurance of coal and tar sands fossil fuels projects in Australia, Canada and Poland.
