Council of Lloyd's

In 2018, after a 2 billion pound loss for 2017, the Corporation of Lloyd's asked every syndicate to fix the worst decile of its portfolio, and turned down business plans that did not. No shareholder voted, no meeting of syndicates was held: this was the power of the Council of Lloyd's at work, delegated to its staff. The Council is the governing body of the Society of Lloyd's, the legal person incorporated in 1871; in market usage the Corporation means the Society and its departments. It writes nothing. Risk is carried by the syndicates; the Council runs the market. It brings together members drawn from the market, external members and independent nominated members, under a chairman, and the 1982 Act gives it the power to make byelaws. Through them it authorizes managing agents and syndicates, approves each syndicate's business plan every year, sets the capital their members deposit, administers the Central Fund and rules on breaches, with sanctions ranging from a fine to exclusion from the market. Most of that work is delegated to a board and to the Corporation's departments, so an underwriter talks about "Lloyd's" far more often than about the Council. Since April 1, 2013 the market has been under dual oversight: the Prudential Regulation Authority supervises the solvency of the Society and the agencies, the Financial Conduct Authority their conduct. The Council remains the first-line supervisor, the one that reads plans line by line, and both authorities supervise it too. An agency can therefore get two requests on the same subject, one from Lime Street and one from the regulator. Not to be confused with the Lloyd's Market Association, which represents the agencies and drafts clauses, nor with the syndicate, which carries the risk.