Lloyd’s confirms Brussels subsidiary
The BBC reports that Lloyd’s of London will establish a new European subsidiary in Brussels to avoid losing business when the UK leaves the EU.
The 329-year-old insurance market confirmed the plan as it released its latest annual results which revealed a profit of £2.1bn in 2016, the same as 2015. It said conditions over the course of the year had been ‘extremely challenging’.
In a statement Lloyd’s of London said, ‘A subsidiary office will be opened in Brussels with the intention that it will be operational for the 1 January renewal season in 2019.
Lloyd’s of London’s chief executive Inga Beale told the BBC’s Today programme Brussels had certain key attractions: ‘What we were after was some jurisdiction that had a really robust reputation for regulation, we also wanted to be able to access talent and we wanted really good accessibility.
‘Brussels came out top of our list.’
She stressed that the Brussels office was an additional base, simply an EU subsidiary, and that the number of jobs affected was less than 100.
The company has around 700 London employees, but the market it runs involves more than 30,000.
