Lloyd’s of London boss vows to stamp out sexual harassment

The Lloyd’s of London boss has said he was “devastated” by a report on sexual harassment against women working in the insurance market as he pledged decisive action to put an end to behaviour ranging from inappropriate comments to physical assault.

The world’s biggest insurance market commissioned a major survey into its culture after an investigation by Bloomberg in March detailed widespread harassment. The results of the survey will be released in a report on 24 September.

The Lloyd’s chief executive, John Neal, admitted that the survey, the largest ever conducted by the insurance sector, “is validating that those problems exist”.

The company, he said, will announce a number of “core actions” to deal with gender equality, but he cautioned: “It’s going to take time. I don’t think it’s a problem that we can fix in 12 months.”

Neal said there had been more than 6,000 responses to the survey, conducted by the independent Banking Standards Board, which was sent out to the 45,000 people who work at the 333-year-old insurance market, including Lloyd’s 1,000 direct employees.

The building in the City of London houses thousands of brokers, underwriters and staff employed by other insurance firms. Most of the insurance business is still conducted face-to-face.

Neal’s predecessor, Inga Beale, who became the first female chief executive at Lloyd’s in 2014 and left last October, banned daytime drinking for Lloyd’s staff but the ban did not extend to the rest of the market.

In April, Lloyd’s finally cracked down on drinking and drugs, saying it would bar people believed to be drunk or on drugs from its premises. It stopped serving alcohol during the day at its in-house bar, One Under Lime, in the undercroft of the building.

Neal said the new independently run bullying and harassment hotline created by the company had been quieter than expected. But he revealed there had been a number of incidents where Lloyd’s had banned individuals temporarily from its building by withdrawing their pass, for between one and three months, “for alcohol or poor use of language”.

The findings of the cultural survey along with a new action plan will be published next Tuesday when Lloyd’s holds its annual diversity and inclusion festival, called Dive In, started under Beale’s leadership.

The Lloyd’s chairman, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, said the results “will not be surprising but they will be sobering. They will provide a kind of benchmark for us, from which we have to measure consistent improvement.”

Lloyd’s has already threatened potential lifetime bans for those found guilty of “inappropriate behaviour”. It can also fine or ban the companies employing those individuals if they are found not to be doing enough.

The remarks came as Lloyd’s moved back into the black after a spate of major natural disasters such as Typhoon Jebi in Japan sparked heavy losses in 2017 and 2018. It reported a pretax profit of £2.3bn for the first six months of the year, the best result for at least 15 years, after a significant recovery in the investment market.

Lloyd’s benefited from strong returns on the bond and equity investments that it holds to back the insurance policies in the market. Its investment income jumped to £2.3bn from £200m a year earlier.

The group is also pulling out of unprofitable business. Last year it told its 99 member syndicates, which provide insurance cover for anything from oil rigs to footballers’ legs, to ditch the worst performing 10% of their businesses.

A week after the cultural survey, Lloyd’s will publish a blueprint for how to modernise the market and cut costs.

Jefferies analyst Philip Kett said: “As new Lloyd’s CEO John Neal pointed out, it will be difficult for Lloyd’s to grow and compete efficiently when about 40% of customer premiums are consumed by expenses. Nevertheless, the market made remarkable improvements in the first half.”