Lloyd's of London, the global insurance and reinsurance market, has announced a 16.7 per cent decrease in its pre-tax profit for the first six months of 2026, reaching £3.5bn. This decline is largely attributed to bond market jitters and a fall in investment returns.
The market's gross written premiums, however, saw a 6.9 per cent increase, rising to £34.7bn from £32.5bn in the previous year. This growth was driven by a 15.8 per cent jump in volume from new and existing syndicates, which helped to offset a 6.7 per cent drop in market-wide prices.
Lloyd's stated that its investment returns fell to £1.8bn, with geopolitical tensions and inflationary pressures affecting its bond assets. Despite this, the core business showed improvement, with an underwriting result of £1.9bn, up from £1.5bn. The combined ratio, a measure of insurance profitability, improved to 90.8 per cent, partly due to a period with fewer major natural disasters.
Chief executive Patrick Tiernan supported the results, emphasising that "underwriting discipline and innovation are the keys to maintaining outperformance." Lloyd's also confirmed it is on track with its targets and its four-point growth plan focusing on underwriting excellence, operational efficiency, capital optimisation, and staff retention.