Embattled Lloyd’s Chief to Step Down

The chairman of Lloyd’s of London, the world’s biggest insurance market, said Monday that he will resign at the end of the year in response to mounting protests from angry members hit by the market’s heaviest losses ever.

David Coleridge told several thousand members gathered in Lloyd’s futuristic headquarters in London’s business district that he was calling it quits and that he was nominating a leading broker, David Rowland, to succeed him.

His widely expected decision was greeted with polite applause at Lloyd’s first extraordinary general meeting since 1981. It was the first to be called by members, or “names,” to voice dissent against the governing body.

Lloyd’s is not an insurance company but a market that matches clients with syndicates that agree to provide insurance against losses.

The syndicates are made up of individuals, the “names,” who agree to unlimited personal liability. They make money when there are no claims and can in theory lose everything if things go wrong.

Last month, the underwriters at Lloyd’s posted their worst-ever losses of $3.84 billion for 1989, the latest reporting year.

At the meeting Monday, members vented bitterness and incredulity at Lloyd’s leaders, who they said gave no advice on their underwriting and felt no moral duty to care about their plight.