Throwback Thursday: Lloyd’s back monster hunt
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to April 1971 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when Lloyd’s backed the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster and a computer underwriter was developed.
29 April 1971: Lloyd’s back monster hunt
Lloyd’s announced it would underwrite a £1m prize offered for the capture of the Loch Ness monster.
The prize was being offered by whisky firm Cutty Sark.
There were several conditions to be met by monster hunters, including the beast had to be captured by 1 May 1972 in an undamaged condition and Lloyd’s underwriters would become the sole owners of the right to exhibit Nessie.
Meet your new underwriter
Williams & Cross Limited, Putney-based computer consultants in insurance, announced they had developed “Underwriter”.
The Underwriter system was a “complete accounting and statistical system of underwriting and financial control”.
According to the developer, four insurance companies had already been using the system for a year. Who said insurance companies were slow to embrace technological change, eh?
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