Lloyd’s of London to close underwriting room for simulation shutdown

The insurance market Lloyd’s of London have announced they are to close the underwriting room at the London headquarters on Friday to simulate a coronavirus shutdown.

Lloyd’s said they will “test the resilience of the market” by closing the underwriting room for 24 hours from midnight to “test alternative trading protocols.”

The insurer said, “This 24-hour exercise will provide valuable information on the real-life effectiveness of the protocol.”

The underwriting room will also have a deep clean including all public areas as a precautionary measure.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) has now categorised the deadly coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic.

Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO said: “WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.

“We have therefore made the assessment that COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic.

“WHO’s mandate is public health. But we’re working with many partners across all sectors to mitigate the social and economic consequences of this covid-19 pandemic.”