Regulator ramps up Lloyd’s of London whistleblowing monitoring
The Bank of England has ramped up its monitoring of Lloyd’s on London’s whistleblowing processes, it said today.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) announced the insurance market had agreed to extra checks.
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In February, Lloyd’s told the PRA its only anonymous whistleblowing channel for staff had not been active since October 2017.
Lloyd’s also failed to provide an expected annual whistleblowing report, the regulator said.
Other whistleblowing channels were available while the anonymous hotline was down, the PRA said.
Lloyd’s has voluntarily agreed to additional requirements.
Those include better reporting of whistleblowing cases and training for senior staff.
Recent years have been marred by reports of sexual harassment and bullying at the 330-year old insurance market.
According to a survey in September, nearly one in 12 employees working at Lloyd’s had witnessed harassment there in the last year.
A quarter said they had witnessed excessive drinking.
Lloyd’s has tried to improve behaviour in the market this year.
One step to do that has been to introduce life bans from its building for those breaching standards.
Nearly 50,000 people work at the insurance market.
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“We are extremely disappointed by this failure in our internal controls, which serves to remind us all about the need for constant vigilance when it comes to these essential services,” a Lloyd’s spokesman said.
“Lloyd’s employees can feel confident that we now have all the right mechanisms in place for them to report any wrongdoing, and that these systems are regularly monitored.”