It’s no secret that the world’s largest specialist insurance market Lloyd’s of London is setting up a new subsidiary in Brussels – and now its chief executive has offered more details on the plans.

Inga Beale has outlined that Lloyd’s, which began life in 1688 and has more than 80 syndicates at its city of London headquarters, remains on track to open its Brussels subsidiary in early 2019 and that the hiring process is already under way.

“We are hiring people, we hope to make some appointments shortly. We will have the Brussels subsidiary up and running by January 01, 2019,” she told Reuters.

“That is ahead of the actual official exit, but we run a market and we want to be ready for all of our businesses and syndicates that operate within the market. That’s why we are really pushing ahead.”

She noted in the interview with the newswire that Lloyd’s is currently seeking office space and is also putting technology systems in place.

“The only thing that might change it ... is any sort of delay to an actual impact of Brexit,” she said.

So how many can we expect at the Brussels subsidiary? According to Beale it will be “in the tens, probably, up to 40 or something.” Some roles will be moved from other centres to the subsidiary.

In addition, Beale outlined plans for further growth in Asia Pacific, which currently makes up 10% of its global revenue - “it’s very, very important and we will be growing,” she said.
 

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