Lloyd's

byname Society of Lloyd's

Insurance marketing association in London, specializing in high-risk insurance services. Its history dates to 1688, when Edward Lloyd kept a London coffeehouse where merchants, seafarers, and marine-insurance underwriters met to transact business. The underwriters at Lloyd's eventually formed a marine-insurance association (incorporated 1871); it expanded to include other forms of insurance in 1911. Unlike most contemporary insurance providers, Lloyd's operates as a marketplace for insurance and consists of hundreds of individual members and corporations organized in syndicates, which are represented at Lloyd's by underwriting agents. Individual syndicate members, rather than the corporation, are liable for losses. Until record losses in the 1980s and '90s bankrupted some syndicate members, they had unlimited liability for business transacted for them; in 1993 that liability was limited.{hazard symbol} See also insurance, liability insurance.

Find more information on Lloyd's. Upgrade to Britannica Online for more on Lloyd's.