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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
LONDON--Members of Lloyd's of London have voted to proceed with a package of reforms designed to modernize the Lloyd's market.
Lloyd's can now begin implementing the reforms, which include a move to annual accounting from Lloyd's three-year system, the closing of the market to new unlimited-liability names and regulatory changes.
Following the Sept. 12 vote, Lloyd's Chairman Sax Riley, whose Chairman's Strategy Group proposed the reforms late last year, said, "We now have a decisive mandate to implement our proposals for modernization."
The vote returned a result of 79.9% in favor of the resolution and 20.1% against. Votes were weighted according to capacity underwritten at Lloyd's, with each member given one vote for every £500,000 ($775,000) of capacity. The Electoral Reform Ballot Service, which counted the votes, said that on a one-member, one-vote basis, 3,356 voted against the resolution while 1,393 voted in favor.
Lloyd's reform vote had faced opposition from groups representing individual investors, who expressed concerns about some aspects of the proposals that they fear would undermine names' rights (BI, Sept. 9).
The Assn. of Lloyd's Members, which advised its 5,400 members to vote against the resolution, said before the vote that even though it expected the resolution to pass, it would seek to block implementation of aspects of the package of which it disapproved. On Friday, the ALM said it would discuss its position with Lloyd's.