Ultimate Risk - Hardcover

The world's oldest and best-known insurance market, Lloyd's of London, is at the epicentre of a financial catastrophe. Losses running into billions of pounds threaten its future and to bankrupt thousands of individual investors who provide the capital for the market. This financial nightmare, which has led to more than a dozen suicides and spawned an avalanche of litigation, stems from unprecedented natural disasters worldwide, and huge numbers of asbestos and pollution claims in the United States. This is an insider's account of the unfolding catastrophe, the result in part of scandals ranging from skims to conflicts of interest, and outright fraud. As a Lloyd's "Name" (investor) in three of the worst-affected syndicates, the author has had a ringside seat from which to report the human tragedies and parliamentary, legal and financial dramas. In his expose of a market once renowned for "utmost Good Faith", he traces the development of a crisis which has gone far to destroy the reputation for fair dealing and integrity built up by Lloyd's over three centuries of successful trading. Adam Raphael was adjudged Journalist of the Year in the 1973 British Press Awards, and is the author of "My Learned Friends", an expose of the British libel laws.