Syndicate drops lines

Lloyd's Syndicate MWL 2245 has stopped writing new business on certain lines for the rest of June, as part of a strategy to allocate its capital across the whole 2002 year.

Syndicate 2245 underwriter Mark Lawrence said he had told brokers that the syndicate would not be taking on new employers' liability, public liability and directors and officers business for the balance of the month, and that the situation was being reviewed on a monthly basis.

However, the syndicate is continuing to write its core professional indemnity business.

Lawrence said the move would allow the syndicate to write renewal business throughout the year.

"A broker would much rather hear from me that I have the capacity to write his renewal book for the rest of the year," he said.

Lawrence was responding to market rumours that Heritage, the managing agency that runs Syndicate 2245 and Syndicate 1245, had ceased writing new business.

He said: "We are reserving the capacity that we have left for new business, for an appropriate moment. So it's absolutely and categorically not true that we're not writing new business."

According to the Heritage Managing Agency website, Syndicate 1245 has a total capacity of £61m for 2002.