European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Lloyds Lutine Bell is struck when important Market announcements Are to be risky business satellites Asan Francisco Lloyds of London covers the world business flows into Lloyds from ally arts of the Globe and represents an income of 12 million pounds in premiums per during the afternoon As Many As people work in the or underwriting Page 14 the stars and stripes Lloyds has Nelsons Gold Kin Cruger Bureau chief Bank of America announces that it intends to file a claim for million for losses suffered in Loans to an Oil Tanker is struck by a missile during the Iran Iraq payouts soar for claims filed for false arrest against american police these three recent news items have All spelled bad news for Lloyds of the worlds Premier insurance Lloyds claims it will insure anyone against anything As Long As the Premium is some Lloyds investors have been so hard hit by various claims that perhaps they should be inquiring into taking out policies against losing their Money in the Lloyds insurance Market is neither a company nor a corporation in the american sense of the it has no shareholders and accepts no joint liability for the risks insured Lloyds is a society of underwriters whose Mem All private accept insurance business for their own personal profit or As Lloyds they Are individually liable to the full extent of their Persona fortunes to meet their underwriting As a Lloyds spokesman said grimly anyone who joins Lloyds comes in with open they Are liable Down to their last shirt headquartered in a massive building on Lime Street in London financial is an insurance Market of a kind to be found nowhere else in the almost anything can be insured there fleets of ships and Bridges and Oil rigs and refineries to name but a few of the risks which Are placed at Lloyds each this business flows from All parts of the Globe and rep resents an income of nearly 10 million pounds about million in premiums each working for a proper understanding of present Day How it Why it exists it s necessary to go Back 300 years to when and where it in the 17th the insurance of ships and car goes was a fairly simple matter of hawking a policy around London for subscription by anyone with sufficient Means to take a share of the risk in return for a percentage of the the insurance broker was skilled in ensuring that policies were underwritten Only by men of sufficient financial integrity to meet their share of a claim to the full if need of their personal underwriters were in the main wealthy signing policies As a sideline to their main it was against this background that Edward a opened a coffeehouse on London Tower it seems Likely that from the outset he encouraged a clientele of sea captains and others with an interest in waterborne Coffee of which there were hundreds in London at the were centers of discussion where business and pleasure were happily combined and where the latest gossip could be Edward Lloyd gained a reputation for providing trustworthy shipping news one of the most important factors to ensure successful perhaps More than anything ensured that Lloyds Coffee Over and above its eventually became the recognized place to obtain Marine As far As is known Lloyd himself took no part in the when Lloyd died in 1731 his principal legacy to the future was his name and the establishment bearing As the 18th Century Drew the informal gathering of merchants at Lloyds gradually assumed a More cohesive in those times Only a thin line divided respectable Marine insurance underwriting from the sort of activity that would now be regarded As beyond the scope even of a Side by Side with the insurers of ships and cargoes existed men who would make a Book against any occurrence against an ailing for dying within a certain in a number of Lloyds More reputable customers decided to break away and set up a rival establishment in nearby Popes head Alley devoted strictly to Marine this step led rapidly to the establishment of a properly constituted out of which developed the present Day Lloyds Little outward resemblance to the dim and smoke filled coffeehouse where it All started three centuries at the heart of Lloyds operation is the which is the nickname for the enormous underwriting Saloon where As Many As people work during the afternoon the Busy time of the Day at this chamber 340 feet Long and 120 feet wide is essentially a Market for insurance where the placing of risks is a matter of negotiation Between broker and the insurance broker is a key figure in the Lloyds Lloyds underwriters have no other Contact with the insuring Public and their Premium income is entirely dependent on the initiative and Enterprise of Lloyds brokers in obtaining business throughout the the brokers prime duty is to obtain the Best available terms for his to this end he is free to place risks wherever he thinks fit whether at with the insurance or on receiving a request for insurance a Lloyds broker first makes out the a Sheet of folded paper with details of the the next step is to negotiate a rate of Premium with underwriter experts in that partic ular Type of the leading having set the takes a proportion of the risk on behalf of his Syndicate and the remainder of the risk is assumed by other the merchant of the signing policies in a coffeehouse As a gave Way Long ago to the professional underwriter employed by others to accept Busi Ness at Lloyds on their More than Lloyds members All rather wealthy individuals Are grouped into 384 syndicates varying in from a few to More than a thousand names As the members Are each Lloyds member must have at least pounds about to cover but the Money does not have to be lodged at the for could take the form of pounds Worth of Slock shares safely tucked away with a stockbroker collecting in each Lloyds member has the Money working twice with the help of the Taxman to write off losses should things go things occasionally do go spectacularly one claim that took several syndicates to the cleaners was the san Francisco fire and earthquake in Lloyds photos by Gus Schuettler coughed up every cent of the million pounds for which the City was much the same thing happened when the titanic Sank a few years in Many minds the name of Lloyds is synonymous with the Lutine although there is a widespread misconception about its the Bell originally belonged to the French frigate Lutine on which Lloyds members payed off a whopper of a claim following its sinking in the Lutine Bell hangs above the Rostrum in the room and is used when important announcements Are to be made to the two strokes for Good news and one stroke for bad it is not As Many people for each loss at sea and most years it is Only rung once or the last time it rang was to announce the Good news last year of the recovery of two Lloyd insured satellite by the space near the Lutine Bell and suspended on lecterns Are two enormous books in which Are recorded news of the sinking of any ship everything from a supertanker to a Small fishing vessel anywhere in the All entries in the Book Are still entered using a Quill pen and the pen usually is taken up five or six times a Lloyds is also the world Center for shipping intelligence and an Independent Lloyds Register of ship contains details concerning the characteristics and construction of thousands of another Lloyds shipping is published five times a week containing information on voyaging each edition contains some individual changes of information which has been gathered by Lloyds shipping agents who work around the Tours of Lloyds Are Given to certain Small groups who arrange them Well in Advance through the Public relations one of the sights visitors see in a Small museum on the premises is the utilitarian on piece knife and Fork made of Gold and presented to lord Nelson after he lost his right Arm in Battle in across the Street from Lloyds present Headquarters is what will be its new Center of operations when it is completed sometime next the new a futuristic will contain a visitors gallery from which All the action in the Beehive below May be a Silver Model of Nelsons is on display at Lloyds May the stars and stripes Page 15