Lloyd's of London to invest $65 million following slavery report
By Carolyn Cohn
LONDON (Reuters) -Lloyd's of London will invest 40 million pounds ($49.6 million) in regions affected by the transatlantic slave trade, it said on Wednesday, after a report showed the commercial insurance market had strong links to the trade.
Lloyd's will also spend around 12 million pounds on a programme to improve recruitment and progression for Black and other ethnic minority employees in the commercial insurance market, including bursaries for Black university students, it said in a statement.
Lloyd's formed part of a sophisticated network of financial interests that made the slave trade possible, according to research published by Black Beyond Data, based at Johns Hopkins University.
The research was funded by the Mellon Foundation, and Lloyd's said it had no editorial control over the findings.
The 335-year old insurance market apologised in 2020 for its role in the 18th and 19th century slave trade.
«We've asked ourselves how we could have the greatest impact,» Lloyd's Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown told Reuters. «We can't change the wrongs of the past, but we can make a difference today.»
Lloyd's said its Central Fund will invest $25 million in a bond administered by the African Development Bank and $25 million in a bond administered by the Inter-American Development Bank. The bonds will support the UN Sustainable Development Goal of «reduced inequality».
The Lloyd's market is made up of nearly 50,000 people, and Lloyd's wants one in three new hires to come from ethnic minorities. The figure was 17% in 2022.
Historians estimate between one and two-thirds of the British marine insurance market was based on the slave trade in the 18th century.
Alexandre White, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins
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