Lloyd’s of London has voted in favour of reforming its 314-year-old insurance business – but the victory could still be overturned by the Names. The vote last Thursday was held on a “capacity-weighted “ basis, which meant the numerically smaller but financially dominant corporate investors got Chairman Sax Riley’s reforms over the line with an 80% acceptance.

Of all the capacity that was eligible to vote, 64% was corporate and 36% was the Names’ private third party capital.

Mr Riley said the market now has “a decisive mandate to implement our proposals for modernisation. The first stage of our work has concluded; the second stage – implementation – is now under way.”

The market not having made a profit for the past five years, Mr Riley’s promise to make Lloyd’s “more transparent, more efficient, strongly regulated and ultimately, profitable” was well received by the corporate investors. They are less than happy with the market’s three-year accounting system and other costly inefficiencies.

“These reforms provide us with a path to follow,” he said. “We must now travel along that path as quickly and effectively as possible with the support and assistance of the market and our members.”

The voting method was weighted against the Names, many of whom have not invested in the market for years but remain empowered to vote. About 2500 Names are active among the 16,000 market members eligible to vote. Most Names voted against the reforms, which would eventually deprive them of the ability to take unlimited liability risks and pick up some handy tax concessions for the trouble.

That was, really, only round one. Mr Riley still has to get some other crucial votes through to set his reforms in concrete. The Names may still be able to stop him.