Lloyd's has confirmed that it will establish a new European insurance company in Brussels.

The decision, following that by AIG recently to establish its new EU office in Luxembourg, has caused some soul-searching here, as Dublin had been seen as a likely transfer venue for either or both.

The reasons given for its choice of Brussels this morning are interesting given the debate here over recent weeks surround the relocation of insurance companies.

Junior Finance Minister, Eoghan Murphy has alleged that certain jurisdictions might be imposing less stringent regulatory thresholds than we require, in order to attract insurance business in particular.

In a statement, Lloyd's chief executive, Inga Beale said: "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."

It also highlighted the availability of specialised talent as another factor which affected the decision. The office will employ "dozens" of people.

Lloyd's of London has also reported a pretax profit of £2.1bn (€2.4bn) for 2016 - that's the same figure it recorded in 2015.