Lloyd’s describes first half of 2010 as “costliest on record”

Lloyd’s of London, a specialist insurance market, has reported a pre-tax profit of $942 million in the first half of 2010, down from a first-half profit of roughly $2 billion in 2009.
Lloyd’s combined ratio (COR) in the first half of 2010 was 98.7%, down from the COR of 91.6% reported in the first half of 2009.
Investment returns amounted to $896 million in 2010 H1, down from 2009 H1 returns of $1.1 billion.
Claims paid in the first half of 2010 amounted to $6.9 billion, a slight uptick from the $6.86 billion the market paid during the same period in 2009.
“The first six months of 2010 were the costliest on record since we began interim reporting, testing not only Lloyd’s but insurers around the globe,” Lloyd’s chairman Lord Peter Levine said in a statement. “It is a true indication of the strength of the Lloyd’s market that despite challenging investment conditions, softening rates and exceptional catastrophic events, we have returned a first half profit of $942 million.”