Lloyd’s of London to invest $65 million following the slavery report Following research that revealed the commercial insurance industry had close ties to the transatlantic slave trade, Lloyd’s of London (SOLYD.UL) announced on Wednesday that it would invest 40 million pounds ($49.6 million) in areas impacted by the trade.
According to a release, Lloyd’s would also invest about 12 million pounds in a program to enhance the hiring and advancement of black and other ethnic minority workers in the commercial insurance sector. This initiative will include bursaries for black college students. According to research by Black Beyond Data, a company based at Johns Hopkins University, Lloyd’s was part of a sophisticated network of financial interests that supported the slave trade.
The Mellon Foundation funded the study, and Lloyd’s said it had no editorial influence on the results. 2020 saw the 335-year-old insurance market issue an apology for its part in the slave trade during the 18th and 19th centuries.
According to Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of Lloyd’s, “We’ve asked ourselves how we could have the greatest impact,” as Reuters reported. “We can’t change the wrongs of the past, but we can make a difference today.” According to Lloyd’s, the Central Fund would put $25 million into bonds managed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the African Development Bank. The bonds will support the UN Sustainable Development Goal of “reduced inequality.”
There are around fifty thousand individuals in the Lloyd’s market, and the company wants one in three of its new personnel to be a member of an ethnic minority. The 2022 figure was 17%.
According to historians, the slave trade in the eighteenth century served as the foundation for between one and two-thirds of the British maritime insurance market. According to Johns Hopkins University assistant professor Alexandre White, the Black Beyond Data team looked through ledgers in which insurers noted insurance for ships sailing out of Liverpool as part of commerce. These materials were taken from Lloyd’s collection.
“Lloyd’s played a central role in the underwriting of marine insurance about the slave trade,” he stated. For instance, according to the Black Beyond Data study, Lloyd underwrote at least one-third of all slave voyages leaving Britain in 1807, either for the entire voyage or just a few specific legs.
According to the study, Joseph Marryat, who chaired Lloyd’s of London from 1811 to 1824, had also enslaved people, said White.
Co-founder of Equity, which helps minorities in the insurance industry find jobs and mentorship, Junior Garba, stated, “There’s no way to compensate for the damage that has been done—too much has happened.” Lloyd’s actions, Garba said, were “a good starting point.”
Earlier in the year, the Church of England pledged a hundred million pounds to rectify the “shameful” wrongs caused by its association with slavery.
According to the United Nations, one way for nations to make up for the enslavement of people of African heritage is through financial reparations. African and Caribbean organizations have demanded reparations, and the European Union has referenced them. Senators from the United States also favor reparations.
