Claims from hurricane damage this year have exceeded the total for the Sept. 11 attacks and may push Lloyd’s of London into a deficit this year, the specialist insurance market said Wednesday.
Lloyd’s reported that hurricane claims have reached $5 billion (2.92 billion pounds), including $3.3 billion (1.9 billion pounds) from Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans.
Claims from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States totaled 2 billion pounds, the market said.
Lloyd’s market said it was still possible, but unlikely, that it would record a profit for 2005, as long as there were no additional major catastrophic losses during the year.
Luke Savage, Lloyd’s director of finance and risk management, said that no Lloyd’s member would go bust as a result of the hurricane losses, while the effect on the Lloyd’s market central fund would be negligible.
Lloyd’s members recorded a $2.4 billion (1.4 billion pounds) profit in the first half of the year, up 21 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Lloyd’s is a society of corporate underwriters and wealthy individuals that make insurance transactions through 44 managing agents and 62 syndicates.
