San Antonio College Library

This is a history of Lloyd's, a British insurance and reinsurance market. In the 17th century, London's importance as a trade center led to an increasing demand for ship and cargo insurance. Edward Lloyd's coffee house became recognised as the place for obtaining marine insurance. Since those beginnings in a coffee house in 1688, Lloyd's has been a pioneer in insurance and has grown to become the world's leading market for specialist insurance.

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...