Lloyds of London is not, in itself, an insurance company, it is an umbrella organisation by which the insurance market is run and regulated, therefore on the face of it, it could not, as an entity, have suffered insolvency due to excessive claims.
What was of great concern to the Lloyds at the time was asbestosis which saw many Names go bankrupt with court cases and and counter claims being made by those exposed to the risk. Into this storm was dropped the Bishopgate bomb which put more pressure on an already stressed institute. As I read it, Pool Re was created to support insurers in the case of further events and not bail out the Names and investors of the time, although I stand to be corrected on that point. It allowed insurance companies to continue offering cover against acts of terrorism which remains an impossible risk to determine accurately.
There were other scandals engulfing Lloyds in the 80s and 90s involving syndicates underwriting more business than they had assets to cover and then the twin shocks of Piper Alpha and Exxon Valdez saw huge losses in the market. Piper Alpha in particular saw claims of 1.4bn being settled while the Exxon Valdez event was more evenly spread amongst other insurance schemes.
Given the size and growth of the insurance market other players from around the world were obviously going to start competeing with Lloyds at some point. Bishopsgate didn't cause that to happen, it would only have accelerated it.
I was a frequent visitor to Lyrath house,
to home of captain tupper who used to sign his name Capt Tupper RN RTD .
As he was ex royal navy -- he had jersey cattle on his parkland as he liked the colour contrast when he viewed his large acreage beside kilkenny .
why i was there was his wife was a lady and she was head of the council for the blind in kilkenny and i used to gather up people around for miles for meetings and education in lyrath house .
he did not work and was a Lloyds name ---like many of his ilk were simply well heeled gamblers on insurance .
they gave an air of invincibility and superior knowledge of how the world worked and were obnoxious to deal with .
on one occasion he was with his pal sir william blunden of blunden castle on the callan rd and they were unable to have a conversation with a bus driver and they turned and asked me to look at a tv that had stopped working years ago .
their young family were beside us in the kitchen and were also unable to converse with me and made no effort .
sir williams family is composed of his 8 yes eight daughters who are striking looking with their waist length hair in their middle ages today .
under british title law their estates must pass to the next male heir which was an unknown cousin in england who got their home when sir william died ---- hense the eight daughters ..
captain tupper did not fare any better as the ira got him twice --once in the city of london when the losses almost finished lloyds and forced him to sell his beloved lyrath estate which is owned today by xavier mcauliffe who owns both the lyrath estate hotel and conference center and the springhill court hotel in kilkenny .
when capt tupper sold up the ira knew a lot would be sold for cash and they arrived in kilkenny and put a gun in her mouth and forced him to open the safe and they took any money and valuables they had .
it was believed in ira circles that these retired british military officers were gathering intelligence constantly for the british .
This is my only experience of lloyds and a Lloyd's name and it is a strange world.
