The market further plans to ‘fully adopt’ flexible working from 21 June

As the UK looks to navigate its way out of the current national lockdown, plans are being drawn up to allow underwriters and brokers back into the Lloyd’s underwriting room in May.

The market has pencilled in 17 May for the reopening of the underwriting room, but numbers will be significantly restricted, with specific classes of business being written on specific days.

After being forced to close the underwriting room for the first time in 300 years in 2020, the market re-opened the room late last year with social distancing measurers in place – only around one-third of the regular numbers were allowed in the room. It is believed that a similar system will be in place in May.

A Lloyd’s spokesperson told Insurance Times: “We have considered the UK government guidance carefully and are now able to confirm our plans for re-opening Lloyd’s underwriting room and corporation offices.

“Our plan is to re-open the underwriting room on 17 May (the government’s stage three) for those in the market who need to be in. To manage capacity and ensure we are Covid-secure, we will once again apply a class of business rota during the week and we will confirm further details closer to the time.

“All being well, we will look to further relax restrictions and increase footfall in line with expected updated government guidance from 21 June”.

The spokesperson added: “We will be opening our corporation offices to those employees who need to be in for their wellbeing from 12 April, and on a limited rota basis for those who wish to come in from 17 May.

“If all goes to plan, we will relax this further from 21 June when we will also begin to fully adopt flexible working.”

Having a virtual presence

The move comes as the market has been inviting those who work within it to suggest how they envisage the underwriting room of the future.

“Through our Future at Lloyd’s strategy, we want to ensure every part of the Lloyd’s market ecosystem, be it digital or physical, integrates and delivers the best experience,” said Lloyd’s.

“During the last 12 months, we have sharped our focus due to Covid-19 and as a result accelerated our plans to establish a virtual underwriting room, which we launched last September and is now open to all classes of business located in the UK.

“The virtual room provides a way for underwriters and brokers to continue to connect efficiently and effectively while working remotely.

“We continually deliver new enhancements to the virtual room, for example by giving brokers a real-time view of underwriters’ profiles and their risk appetites, as well as using scheduling and flexible chat features to set up and run virtual meetings.”

Future operations

Lloyd’s added that the time was right to ask how those in the market envisaged its future operation.

“A physical presence in London remains important and now is the right time to talk to stakeholders about how best to operate the trading floor to reflect different ways of working,” it said.

“Over the coming months, we’re partnering with Lloyd’s market associations to engage as many stakeholders as possible to co-create this future vision for the physical underwriting room and supporting shared spaces.

“We have started a market-wide consultation to gather a range of insights and ideas from a diverse range of market participants about the future requirements for the physical spaces within the Lloyd’s building, as well as how this interacts with different digital solutions, such as our new virtual underwriting room.

“We’re keen to get as many perspectives as possible to help inform our thinking. We want to build an exciting, bold, and innovative future experience that provides flexibility, supports market growth, attracts new talent and enables all market participants to trade and collaborate efficiently and effectively.

“We know the ability to negotiate complex risks face-to-face both physically and virtually between Lloyd’s expert underwriters and brokers is, and will continue to be, an important element of our global and growing market.

“We are excited to embark on this journey – whether physical or virtual, our goal is to ensure Lloyd’s continues to be the space to meet, convene and transfer risk.”