"The tragedy has the capacity to become the largest single marine insurance loss ever," the commercial insurance market's chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown said in an interview with Reuters .
Meanwhile, Lloyd's CEO John Neal told BBC Radio 4's "Today" show that it was fortunate that both the bridge and the ship that collided with it were insured, even though that could lead to billion-dollar losses within the industry.
"I would say it's certainly going to be one of the largest marine losses in history, of that there is little or no doubt," he said. "But genuinely, the good news is that it's insured.
"When we talk about natural disasters and hurricanes and cyclones, we worry about the people who are not insured," Neal added. "In this instance, this is insured.
"So, complex and severe though it is, there is at least the financial cover to consider what reparation and related costs are arising from the loss."
Both of those figures would surpass the $1.5 billion losses triggered by the Costa Concordia disaster. The luxury cruise ship capsized off the coast of Italy in January 2012, killing 32 people in one of Europe's worst modern maritime tragedies.
The Lloyd's bosses' warnings came the same day that the insurance giant reported its earnings for 2023. The firm posted total pre-tax profits of 10.7 billion pounds ($13.5 billion), driven higher by the strong performance of its underwriting division.
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