Lloyd’s reports $3.4 billion profit in 2010, despite facing significant catastrophe claims

Lloyd’s of London reported a pre-tax profit of approximately $3.4 billion in 2010, down from its $6.2-billion profit in 2009.”In 2010, Lloyd’s made a profit of [$3.4 billion] despite facing significant claims from the tragic earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand, the floods in Australia and the loss of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico,” Lloyd’s chairman Lord Peter Levine said in a statement. “The catastrophes of 2010 and 2011 have shown the crucial role insurance plays in helping communities rebuild after a crisis.”The company’s combined ratio (COR) was 93.3% in 2010, its highest point since before 2006. The market’s COR was 86.1% in 2009.Still, Lloyd’s said its own COR in 2010 compared favourably to the estimated average COR of 101.5% for U.S. property and casualty insurers in 2010.The Lloyd’s market wrote $36.3 billion of premium in 2010, a slight increase over what it wrote in 2009.Lloyd’s told Reuters press agency that its businesses had enough capital to withstand a Japanese quake generating insured losses of up to $64 billion. Catastrophe risk modelers have initially estimated losses arising from the 2011 quake in Japan to be anywhere between $12 billion to $35 billion.