"LLOYDS." WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1908, Page 10

"LLOYDS." WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES

AN OLD INSTITUTION. There are few institutions about A-hich po much haziness exists in tho p ibhc mind" as Lloyds." Some peopU w©ni to think it is an insurance company, and others that it is a body confining its atteatiens to marins surveying. In order to jet a cl«ar idea of Ihe functions »f Lloyds a representative of tha Evening P«st waited upon Mr. Dunn,~ of Messrs. Bethum* and Hunter, Lloyds' age-nts in Wellington, wid in the course of an interview learned that Lloyds* consisted of imder/writers, merchants, shipowners, and »thers interested ia overasa commerce. They ar« incorporated undor "Lloyde* Act," and ths members are divided into underwriting and non-nnderwritinp; members. No insurance company, or person acting for an insurance company, can ba a member of Lloyd 3, nnd underwriting members ars bound to do no insurance business outsido Lloyds' Hoom in tha Royal Exchange, London. Each underwriter does business on his own account, and ho may do any sort of insurance business he likes. Marine, firo, earthquake-r-in fact any risk can be insured against at Lloyds, from the fingers of a violinist to an ocean liner. The committee of Lloyds is the governing body. It takes charge of •eenrities lodged by underwriters against their liabilities. Insurance business at Lloyds is effected through brokers in London ; also in Liverpool, Glasgow, and elsewhere-. Brokers are the agents of the insured, and not of ihe underwriters. The broker fills up a policy form to meet the requirements t>f his client, takes it to Lloyds' Room and gets (if he can) underwriters to - write their names at tho loot of the policy, with the sum annexed for which the underwriter is and so con- , tinues until the sum required is made up. One underwriter may sign 'the namea of numerous other underwriters : for whom hs acts under poorer of attorney. The broker io liabb to the' underwriters for the premium, which he pays on settling day. J NEW ZEALAND LEGISLATION. Of late years much New Zealand proiduce has " been insursd at Lloyd* - through brokers, or brokers' agents, in tho DominioH. "The Marine Insurance Act" of last s«saiou has, howtver, put an end to this. This act also stops the settlement of claims in New Zealand on certificates issued at Lloyds to the holders of open policies, thcaa certificates not bsin'g certificates within the definition, of the Act of what ccn__Btifcutes a policy. Lloyds' agents are stationed at the principal ports of the world ; Dut they liavft nothing to do with the business done tt Lloyds. They are not the agents of thi> underwriters, but of the committea and corporation. Lloyds' agents occupy the position of referees. By a custom of Lloyds a claim upon under writers must be accompanied by a certificate from .loyds' agents of ths facts upon which the claim is , ba^sd. Moat •of the foreign insurance companies insert in their policies some- clause which necessitates the production of a certificate from LloydsJ agent by a claimant. Upon. Lloyds' policies mada payable abroac- Lloyds- agents seUle claims, and the r agents are paid by those requiring their services. SHIPPING NEWS. The movements of shipping, and inform mation. of any casualties ate immediately reported to Lloyds by ■iheir agents at all ports. They carry out, too, any inetructions they receive from Lloyds, and from the London Salvage 1 Association. At Lloyds one has the- individual unhampered and acting in his own interests, a3 opposed to the ■■ insurance company. fhs business dona at Lloyds is world-wide; but the underwriters have no company taxes to pay, no buildings to provide, no staff of clerks to pay s anywhere. Whilo a fire insuranca company in Wellington has to pay a large snnro of its premiums to a fire board, tho underwriters at Lloyds, having lines on the Wellington warehouses and stocks pay nothing; not even the cost of an adjustment, when a' los 3 happens, as their policies probably bind thorn to. pay the same per- j <"entat;e as the two companies most largely interested, and it is owjng to , tnese , and other adi'antages that the premiums at Lloyds are so low. ANCIENT ORIGIN. Lloyds originated in a coffee-house » kept by one Edward liloyd m Towerstreet, London, in tha 17th century, where merchants congregated and discussed 'business affairs. The earliest mention at' Lloyds' Coffee-house- was in the London Gaisatt© in the year 1633, twenty-two years aft&r th» Great Fire of London. The iaiportanc* of tha business of Lloyda' habitues growing the enterprising; eoffee-hous»keoper dacided to remflv* to Lombard-street in 1692, and from there to the Royal Exchange wss a natural and easy transition. Lloyds' List is the oldest existing British p«>per-th» London Gazette excepted. v