Future Focus 2030: The future of Lloyd's and the London Market

It is the year 2030. Following the success of 2019’s Blueprint One and 2025’s Blueprint Two [which also co-opted in the IUA and broader stakeholder representation], Lloyd’s and the wider London market is now ready for the highly anticipated third iteration.

While Lloyd’s had previously had a poor history of making change successful, many commentators admit that under the auspices of CEO John Neal and his successor Baroness Shields [a high profile appointment that was widely welcomed] the market has finally bought itself into the 21st century.

Among the successful foundations laid down by Blueprint One were the Risk Exchange offering end-to-end quote-and-bind platform for non-complex risks which processes 45% of risks now placed in the market.

The complementary Complex Risk Platform has also proved a success, building on PPL, with its adoption being helped by the Covid-19 pandemic, marrying the best of the traditional face-to-face Box interactions with more streamlined efficient technology. This has been assisted by a much greater use of data and automation in areas like contract building and compliance checks.

The claims solution designed to triage and route claims, automating the simpler ones and assisting with more complex claims handling also achieved its aim at massively reducing payments for claims under £250 000. The cycle time for complex claims have also improved dramatically with Lloyd’s again being seen very much as a centre of excellence for claims handling across multiple disciplines including legal and loss adjusting.

The interest of the IUA and greater London market into adopting the concepts outlined in Blueprint One saw them play a greater part in Blueprint Two which has been heralded as a major factor in London stabilising its share of the global (re)insurance market. Reversing a trend where emerging markets – particularly in Asia – had been using growing hubs such as Singapore, Bermuda and Zurich.

This saw it benefit from a wave on new entrants in 2021 and 2022 looking to capitalise on the marketing hardening.

Speaking of which, since the launch of Munich Re’s first syndicate-in-a-box on 1 January 2020, there has been steady stream of these new launches, the most notable of which being the one Amazon launched in 2025, a move seen as a major coup for Baroness Shields.

Indeed the interest of technology giants in Lloyd’s has escalated over the decade beginning with Google’s involvement in Ki, Brit’s standalone algorithmically-driven digital Lloyd’s syndicate, which topped $1bn of GWP by 2024 and marked a shift with others following along shortly with similar platforms. Indeed today half of the top 10 syndicates in Lloyd’s have no presence on the trading floor of Lloyd’s.

Despite calls for Lloyd’s to depart the iconic building on Lime Street, this remains the Lloyd’s building, although it has significantly changed in the last ten years with less floor space given up to traditional boxes, and more of it now being used by insurance technology firms [including a number that began as a syndicate in a box], digital brokers and even a ‘capsule’ hotel.

Finally, EC3 has continued to build on the work of the market’s Culture Advisory Group, and annual Dive-In Festival, with the London insurance market now seeing much greater diversity among its employment. For example women now hold 45% of board positions across the top 20 Lloyd’s Syndicates, and BAME representation is rising steadily too.

Based on this hypothesis Post content director Jonathan Swift sat down with Tom Payne, managing director, UK & Europe, Verisk ISO and Paul Latarche, chief commercial officer at Sequel, to discuss the possible road map between now and a 2030 that looks like this.

This includes whether the illustrious history of Lloyd’s and the London market might be a millstone when it comes to modernisation, the potential of Blueprint One and beyond, the fallout from Brexit and culture and diversity within EC3.

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