In the spring of 1998 Ron Sandier, ...

In the spring of 1998 Ron Sandier, then the chief executive of Lloyd's, sent shakes through the dwindling ranks of individual investors who one time bankrolled the entire market, coming same close to calling for the elimination of "Names" from Lloyd's capital base. Nearly four years later, the ideas behind Sandier's warning marksman might at last lead to all-out war.

Sandier at the time spoke of his room for expectation for "a streamlined and modernized market, stripped of anachronistic historical trappings." His hit list included the annual danger the process by which each Lloyd's syndicate must recapitalize itself each ...