Lloyd’s has officially released its 1998 returns, showing losses of about $3 billion during that year. The market’s global results said the losses are due to underwriting, personal expenses and releases from prior year reserves. 1998 wasn’t a good year, with the Swiss Air crash off the coast of Nova Scotia, Hurricane George and several major satellite losses.

Chairman Saxon Riley said Lloyd’s now expects its 1999 results to show another loss of about $3 billion due to low rates in most classes and high catastrophes. The market will report a profit for this year in 2004. Because the Lloyd’s accounting system is three years behind, its results are more a reminder of what happened.