Lloyd's of London defended itself today after coming under fire because its annual report shows it paid increased bonuses and salaries to senior executives, even though the market made an overall loss.
The report showed that Lloyd's paid chairman Sax Riley £200,000 and awarded him a bonus of £100,000, while chief executive Nick Prettejohn received a salary of £360,000, up from £300,000 the year before, and a bonus of £150,000, up from £100,000.
A Lloyd's spokesman explained why the criticisms were unfair: "Their bonuses are not linked to profitability. Nick Prettejohn and Sax Riley's roles regard the structure of the market and its modernisation, and that is going well."
"They have no direct impact on the profitability of the syndicates, so they cannot put the market into the black or the red," he added.
The annual report also revealed for the first time that Lloyd's made a £25m profit from the sale of its famous 1958 building in Lime Street.
However, that was only from the first stage of the transaction, the spokesman explained.
"We retain an interest in the site and will receive a further payment in future, depending on how the land is developed," he said.
