Lloyd’s has today announced a profit of £0.6bn for the first half of 2018. The market’s return to profit follows the severe catastrophe experience in 2017. Its interim report detailed a combined ratio of 95.5%, annualised return on capital of 4.3%, investment return of 0.3% and net resources of £29.0bn.

The reporting period also featured an improvement in the underwriting result up to £0.5bn from £0.4bn last year. This partly reflects Lloyd’s ongoing work that commenced in 2017 to review the worst performing portfolios, and the subsequent action by the market to reduce loss making lines.

Chief executive, Inga Beale, said the results demonstrate the strength of the market following one of the costliest years for natural catastrophes in the past decade. "Whilst these results are welcome, Lloyd’s continues to concentrate on improving the Lloyd’s market’s long-term performance by taking action to address underperforming areas of the market," Beale said. "The Corporation also remains focused on making the Lloyd’s platform more competitive. Alongside the success of the mandate for the placement of electronic risks, we have recently launched the Lloyd’s Lab, our new innovation accelerator, which will help Lloyd’s use technology to better serve our customers around the world. We have also worked tirelessly to secure the Lloyd’s market’s access to the EU27 and our Lloyd’s Brussels subsidiary will start writing business in the European Economic Area from 1 January 2019.”

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