Lloyd's of London to move jobs to new Brussels office by 2019

Insurance market firm Lloyd's of London will relocate some 100 staff to Brussels in an attempt to maintain its presence in the European Union post-Brexit.

A subsidiary of the group will be set up in the Belgian capital as the firm looks to continue to underwrite its insurance policies in the 27 remaining EU states without interruption.

Lloyd's chief executive Inga Beale said that it was necessary for the company to provide services in Europe.

"It is important that we are able to provide the market and customers with an effective solution that means business can carry on without interruption when the UK leaves the EU.

"Brussels met the critical elements of providing a robust regulatory framework in a central European location, and will enable Lloyd’s to continue to provide specialist underwriting expertise to our customers," Beale said.

"Brussels met the critical elements of providing a robust regulatory framework in a central European location"

Lloyd’s of London’s Brussels branch will have its own board and employ a mixture of relocated staff from the City and new hires.

The world’s largest insurance market employs just under 2,000 people worldwide, with 600 of those currently in London.

During an interview with the BBC, Beale added that the group had considered several other destinations for the new office.

"We looked at many jurisdictions you can imagine, we were very objective," Beale said. "What we were after was some jurisdiction that had a really robust quality reputation for regulation. We also wanted to be able to access talent and we wanted a really good accessibility not only from other parts of continental Europe but also from London."