Lloyd’s pledge on sexism

SCANDAL-HIT insurance market Lloyd’s of London must work harder to tackle sexism, its chairman has admitted.

Bruce Carnegie-Brown said that he did not realise how serious the issue was until an investigation by Bloomberg Businessweek revealed widespread harassment and even allegations of sexual assault by senior managers at companies which work out of Lloyd’s.

It came as the market unveiled a loss of £1bn for 2018, largely driven by higher claims than usual from natural catastrophes such as hurricanes in the US, a typhoon in Japan and fires in California. A year earlier, losses had been £2bn. On sexism, Carnegie-Brown said: ‘ We really didn’t know the extent of the problem until Bloomberg shone a light on it. We’ve actually had a number of initiatives over the last few years trying to make the market more diverse and inclusive, but we hadn’t got to the root of the issue.

‘I think we realise that we’ve still got a huge amount more to do on diversity.’

Women have complained about a culture which has seen them branded ‘totty’ by male staff and rated from 1-10.

One described how a manager attacked her in a pub, but said she was discouraged from complaining because it would be bad for her career. Lloyd’s has said sexist workers could be banned for life.

The 333-year-old market has pledged to create a new confidential hotline to report sexism, and will launch a survey to understand the market’s culture and the extent of the problem.