Mark the date in your calendars, January 19, 2017: the day of change for insurance in the UK.
It was around 10am this morning that news broke of
Aviva restructuring its business in the UK (you can see our original report
here) which included the merger of its life, general and health insurance arms, as well as the departure of its European CEO, and now, just over five hours later,
Zurich UK has made a huge announcement of its own.
The company has confirmed a new UK structure with a host of senior appointments across its business – a move that follows on from its decision to bring its life and general insurance arms together under a single leadership team back in November. However, its restructure will also see 240 jobs go.
According to its statement, Zurich will have a single commercial insurance unit that will bring together all of its commercial offerings and be led by Vinicio Cellerini. This means both its former commercial broker and global corporate UK businesses will be under one market-focused entity.
In addition, the company has created a retail general insurance unit under Conor Brennan – this unit will incorporate personal lines, SME business and specialist propositions including Zurich Private Clients and Navigators & General.
Similarly, Zurich Life has been simplified around two organisational units, life distribution and life manufacturing with Anne Torry to continue as head of life and David White coming in as head of life distribution bringing together retail protection, retail platform, corporate savings, corporate risk and Zurich FutureYou. Jim Sykes takes up the role of head of life manufacturing, taking responsibility for product management, post-sales customer service, oversight of outsourced services and core business activities such as underwriting policy.
“We have built a truly integrated and diverse executive team promptly, and one with significant experience in our markets,” said UK CEO Tulsi Naidu. “We want to continue our market leadership in some areas and take advantage of opportunities to grow in others, making a strong business stronger still. It will be very much business as usual from a market standpoint as we simplify our structure.
“We have an outstanding commercial insurance offering, great life propositions but an underdeveloped presence serving retail and small business insurance customers. We have fantastic momentum in our business and I see opportunity for us to succeed in all our markets by taking a very customer focused approach.”
With functions aligning, however, jobs will go – with Zurich outlining that consultations have already begun with employees about the removal of 240 jobs. According to its statement, the roles will largely be removed from back office and non-market facing areas including finance, operations and marketing.
