Lloyd's of London blames 'natural catastrophes' for latest annual loss

Lloyd's of London has blamed "another costly year for natural catastrophes" after recording a second consecutive annual loss.

The 331-year old insurance market said losses halved from £2bn the previous year to £1bn and reflected major claims in the wake of hurricanes Florence and Michael, Typhoon Jebi in Japan and wildfires in California.

It put the bill at almost £3bn - but that was lower than the £4.6bn sum paid out in 2017 following similar natural disasters including hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

The market pointed to "green shoots" ahead as prices for renewal business were up 3.2%.

It updated on its performance less than 24-hours after it pledged action to address allegations of widespread sexual harassment at the institution in reaction to a report by Bloomberg.

It is carrying out an independent survey of all staff to identify the scale of the problem - with lifetime bans possible for those responsible.

The results were the first under new chief executive John Neal, who replaced its first female boss Dame Inga Beale last autumn.

He said: "This performance is not of the standard that we would expect of a market that has both the heritage and quality of Lloyd's.

"We have implemented stronger performance management measures which will remain an enduring feature of how we go about our business.

"We expect these actions to deliver progressive performance improvement across the market beginning in 2019 and in the years to come."

He added: "We are determined to show decisive leadership across three fronts - to address the performance gap, to secure Lloyd's future success and, following our announcement yesterday, to tackle all forms of inappropriate behaviour with robust actions to create a more inclusive working environment."