Lloyd's has maintained its pre-eminent position in a world where electronic commerce is redefining trading patterns and where customers have more choice than ever. First established in the late 17th Century, its underwriters have, in the intervening 320 years, achieved and developed a worldwide reputation for their ability to provide innovative risk transfer solutions. Lloyd's continues to be at the forefront of world trends in insurance and reinsurance: responding creatively to global consolidation, to increasingly sophisticated clients, to new forms of risk financing, to competition and to rapidly developing technology.