Lloyd’s Plan Gets Qualified Support : Insurance: Investors at annual meeting were looking for assurances of fairness in new settlement proposal.

Backers of Lloyd’s of London gave qualified support at their annual meeting Tuesday to the latest plans to solve the insurance market’s problems, but they continued to press management over past losses.

Lloyd’s last week announced its fifth annual loss in a row, taking the total deficit for the past five years beyond $12.8 billion and posing serious short-term difficulties for the 300-year-old market. Also announced last week was a proposed $4.47-billion settlement that would resolve litigation brought by the backers, or Names, who blame Lloyd’s mismanagement for losses that have bankrupted many of them.

But with a return to profit in sight for next year and hopes for an end to litigation surrounding the market, Chairman David Rowland delivered a relatively upbeat assessment this week. He even won a round of applause from the meeting of about 1,650 Names. During 2 1/2 hours of discussion, the Names offered a qualified welcome to compensation proposals, pending talks this summer to hash out the details.

Names are hoping management reform and the settlement plan will put a cap on their losses and finally give them a way out of the insurance market. The proposed settlement so far lacks detail, and the Names wanted clarification and assurances that the plan would be fair to all, including those who have paid all they can.

The criticism of Lloyd’s was relatively muted at this year’s meeting. Rowland’s efforts to focus on the future notwithstanding, the Names continued to bring up past problems. In particular, they sought an answer to the question of whether Lloyd’s insiders knew in the early 1980s the scope of asbestosis claims from U.S. liability insurance that would be likely to hit the market in later years.