Lloyds: Law and Practice
17.
FINANCIAL RESOURCES AT LLOYD’S (1): SYNDICATE LEVEL
FINANCIAL RESOURCES AT LLOYD’S (1): SYNDICATE LEVEL
17.1
Lloyd’s Annual Report each year and various Lloyd’s publicity material refer to the “Lloyd’s Chain of Security” as having three links: syndicate level assets, members’ funds at Lloyd’s and central assets. An equally apt analogy might be a series of reservoirs constructed to ensure that the syndicate level premiums trust funds are maintained at a sufficient level to meet the members’ liabilities in connection with their underwriting business. That is in effect what the FSA/PRA handbook requires. The first “link” or reservoir consists of the assets maintained at syndicate level: these are the members’ premiums trust funds (PTFs) and the overseas business regulatory deposits funded from them.1 The PTFs, working trust funds, are used to meet the claims, reinsurance premiums and other outgoings and expenses of the syndicate’s business; the overseas deposits, in contrast, are required by overseas laws or regulators as security for the payment of claims in the relevant jurisdictions but in practice are never used because the system of financial resources at Lloyd’s is designed to ensure that the PTFs are always sufficient for the purpose.