Ultimate Risk

In Ultimate Risk: The Inside Story of the Lloyd's Catastrophe, Adam Raphael has written a behind-the-scenes account of this still-unfolding disaster. The result in part of unprecedented natural disasters worldwide and huge numbers of asbestos and pollution claims in the U.S., this ultimate financial nightmare also stems from scandals ranging from skimming profits to conflicts of interest and outright fraud. Few have any idea of the scale of the Lloyd's crisis, which is comparable only to the savings and loan collapse in the U.S. One prediction is that the cost of cleaning up America - for which Lloyd's is in large part responsible, through its insurers in this country - could be as high as $1,000 billion, more than the combined resources of casualty insurers worldwide. If only a fraction of these claims are upheld by the courts and have to be met, the conclusion is inevitable: a number of very important insurance companies in the U.S. will go out of business. And if Lloyd's is unable to pay its U.S. claims - a distinct possibility - it will not be just the biggest financial collapse of the century: hundreds of thousands of American policy-holder claimants, among them the victims of asbestosis, will go unpaid.