US drops bankruptcy clause
Lloyd’s has managed to convince US legislators not to protect local investors who owe the London market money. The Senate voted last Thursday to remove a provision from a new bankruptcy bill that would have made it harder for Lloyd’s to recover debts from “Names”. Many American investors who joined Lloyd’s syndicates in the 1980s and early 1990s have refused to pay, maintaining they were misled about the market’s enormous exposure to asbestos claims.