Lloyd's comes out fighting

At first sight, the demise of Goshawk's Syndicate 102 at Lloyd'slooks bad for the market, pointing to a business with too few reserves tocover escalating claims across several areas - all points that haveplagued other syndicates during the dark days of the market. And there isno doubt that the demise of a substantial syndicate is bad news for allthose closely connected with it.

However, those taking the long view should rejoice that Lloyd's new regimehas come out fighting and taken the tough step of forcing Syndicate 102into run-off. This is exactly the tough disciplinary stance that waspromised as part of the establishment of the Lloyd's Franchise Board andit gives out all the right signals that this is a market that will nottolerate poor performers any longer.

It should be noted, however, that Goshawk's Bermudian reinsuranceoperation is faring well, while its Lloyd's syndicate has collapsed.Wellington has also transferred large swathes of Lloyd's business out toBermuda and the concern must surely be that the offshore domicile does notsimply become the receptacle of more good business while Lloyd'ssyndicates are left to struggle.