Lloyd's of London fines insurer Atrium over initiation games

Lloyd's of London has fined a member firm £1m due to some male managers' heavy drinking, initiation games and sexual remarks about female staff.

Atrium Underwriters admitted charges relating to bullying and misconduct during annual 'boys' nights out'.

Some of the inappropriate behaviour was led, participated in and condoned by two senior leaders, Lloyd's found.

Atrium said it accepted the ruling, was sorry for the hurt caused and would ensure it never happened again.

The fine of £1,050,000 is the largest ever imposed by Lloyd's independent disciplinary committee and its first for non-financial misconduct.

Atrium must also pay Lloyd's costs of £562,713, the committee's report said. The findings followed an investigation by Lloyd's enforcement team.

In a notice of censure, Lloyd's said Atrium had sanctioned and tolerated an annual boys' night out over a number of years up until 2018.

On these nights out some male members of staff, including two senior executives in leadership roles, engaged in unprofessional and inappropriate conduct, Lloyds found.

This included initiation games, heavy drinking and making inappropriate and sexualised comments about female colleagues.

These comments were found to be discriminatory and harassing to female members of staff.

Behaviour by one male staff member - called Employee A in the document - "included a systematic campaign of bullying against a junior employee over a number of years", Lloyd's found.

Once Atrium became aware of the bullying it failed to investigate, take disciplinary action or adequately protect the junior employee, it said.

"Instead, Atrium negotiated a settlement package with Employee A, and allowed him to resign from Atrium rather than face disciplinary sanction," it said.

The document noted that Atrium had a previously good disciplinary record and had co-operated at all times with Lloyd's inquiry and enforcement proceedings.

It added Atrium had now implemented changes including "updating its policies and procedures relating to disciplinary issues, whistleblowing and diversity and inclusion, as well as its guidance and training for senior managers".

Lloyd's chief executive, John Neal, said: "We are deeply disappointed by the behaviour highlighted by this case, and I want to be clear that discrimination, harassment and bullying have no place at Lloyd's."

Christopher Stooke, independent non-executive chairman at Atrium, said the firm had failed to live up to its values and had made serious errors in handling what happened.

"The behaviour outlined in the notice of censure has no place in our business or our industry, and we recognise that we must go further to ensure that this situation is never allowed to happen again," he said.

In 2019, Lloyd's vowed to tackle its male dominated culture after almost one in ten workers said they had witnessed sexual harassment.