Amidst the happiness about Lloyd’s continually improving capital situation comes news that is more sobering. Equitas, the market’s run-off operation set up to handle the liabilities Lloyd’s copped prior to 1992, has settled its largest asbestos claim so far. The giant Halliburton energy services company will receive $755 million early next year in full settlement of all asbestos-related claims – easily eclipsing the record amount set last year when Honeywell was paid $619 million.

Meanwhile, the asbestos reform legislation that became stalled in the US Senate late last year may still make it into law, according to Business Insurance. The magazine says the US Chamber of Commerce believes it has sufficient numbers to secure an agreement to set up a fund to compensate people who suffer from asbestos-related diseases. But as the chamber’s CEO, Thomas Donohue, says, all the interested parties are fighting “about who the hell’s going to pay for it”.