Lloyd’s of London improves COR by nearly eight percentage points in 2023

The combined operating ratio (COR) across the Lloyd’s of London market improved by 7.9 percentage points over the last year.

In a trading update, Lloyd’s said it achieved a COR of 84% in 2023, an improvement from the 91.9% figure secured during 2022.

The better COR came as the marketplace saw a 11.6% rise in gross written premiums (GWP) year-on-year, with it rising from £46.7bn to £52.1bn during the period.

Its underwriting profit also increased £3.3bn to £5.9bn over the last year.

Burkhard Keese, Lloyd’s chief financial officer, said: “2023 was an outstanding year for the Lloyd’s market.

”We continued to see sustainable, profitable growth and performance, leading to our best underwriting result in recent history and a rock solid balance sheet that gives us and our stakeholders confidence in an uncertain environment.”

Investment

Meanwhile, Lloyd’s revealed that it secured an investment return of £5.3bn, reflecting the higher interest rate environment and the unwind of the mark to market accounting treatment on fixed income portfolios.

And its attritional loss ratio remained stable at 48.3%, while the expense ratio remained flat at 34.4%.

Lloyd’s will announce its final 2023 full year financial results on 28 March 2024.

“We will maintain our focus on underwriting and capital discipline and we look forward to announcing our full results and strategic progress later this month,” Keese said.