Disasters drive Lloyd’s of London to H1 loss

Insurance claims from earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, floods in Australia and tornadoes in the United States drove Lloyd’s of London to its biggest-ever first half loss, the insurance market said Wednesday. Lloyd’s, which has no connection with Lloyds Banking Group PLC, said it received claims totaling 6.7 billion pounds ($10.5 billion) from the combined disasters. That led to a first-half pretax loss of 697 million pounds.