The area around Lime St, where the Lloyd’s Building now stands, has been at the heart of financial commerce for centuries. It was on Lombard St, back in the late 1600s, where merchants and ship-owners would meet at Lloyd’s Coffee House to discuss maritime insurance, shipbroking and foreign trade. It didn’t take long for their informal convivial chat to be formalised and regulated. However, it’s unlikely they could ever have foreseen how they helped pave the way for the towering buildings that represent the epicentre of the financial services and insurance industry in the UK today.
Nor would they have predicted some of the more ‘quirky’ elements of insurance and risk. The industry as a whole insures all conceivable types – from F1 drivers to Cristiano Ronaldo’s legs, and even Bruce Springsteen’s vocal chords.
However, the same passion, curiosity and appetite for risk still exists, although the figures dealt with now differ wildly. The London Insurance Market generates 26% of the City’s GDP and 0.9% of total GDP for the UK. It’s the largest global centre for commercial and speciality risk, controlling more than 91bn in GWP in 2015. It employs around 35,000 professionals in London.
Rich Millbank is one of these professionals – a former Royal Engineer, he has forged a successful career in the insurance sector, with the help and support of Lloyd’s Military Network Work Placement Programme. The programme lasts two months and is run twice a year. Most significantly, it has a 70% success rate at placing ex-military personnel into new industry careers.
Rich joined the Business Development team at JLT Speciality, a specialist insurance broker, in September 2016. His main role within the bid management team is to help the briefing team attract new business through compelling and convincing presentations.
