Birthday Wishes

Lloyd’s 75th Anniversary Party in Canada

Lloyd’s of London in November 2007 celebrated 75 years in Canada with a call for a public-private risk-sharing pool to help backstop business losses arising from a terrorist attack.

In addition, Lloyd’s announced at its 75th Anniversary Party in Canada that it would be donating Cdn$100,000 to the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR). The money will be used to establish a new program designed to advance scientific, international climate change research.

In honour of Lloyd’s 75th birthday in Canada, Lloyd’s chairman Lord Peter Levene flew to Canada to deliver an address to the Empire Club in Toronto entitled “Terrorism and Political Risk–A Key Challenge for Global Business?” In it, Levene lamented that, unlike markets in Australia, France, Germany, South Africa, Spain and the United States, Canada is “noticeably alone” in not having a terrorism pool in place.

“Long-term threats require well-thought-out, long-term solutions,” said Nicholas Armour, the British Consul-General in Toronto, reading the speech for Levene. [Levene had to quit in mid-speech due to a case of laryngitis that cut his trip to Canada short.]

“From an insurance perspective, this often means having a formal public-private partnership in place to provide businesses with coverage against the risk of terrorist attacks. Britain has had such a partnership in place for decades, where the commercial insurance market participates in a pool scheme with the government acting as the ultimate reinsurer if the loss is very severe.”

And lest Canadians think they are safe from any threat of terrorist attacks, Levene cited “intelligence” saying that Canada’s role has changed from that of a hub for fundraising and planning attacks outside the nation, to a credible target in its own right. “We are told that, by this year, there were thought to be some 60 groups operating within Canada’s borders that support an extremist jihadi ideology,” Levene said.

On a more optimistic note, Lloyd’s capped its celebration with an announcement in support of research on climate change. Wendy Baker, president of Lloyd’s America Inc., announced Lloyd’s was making a Cdn$100,000 donation to the Canadian Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

ICLR’s executive director, Paul Kovacs, and his fellow committee members on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently received a Nobel Prize for their work in climate change research. In accepting the donation on behalf of the ICLR, Kovacs said the money would be used to establish a new Global Hazard Research Program. He said the program would produce scientific research on hazards prevention to the international stage through the IPCC.