Zurich Australia has warned of possible staff redundancies as it works on changes to its organisational structure.

Acting CEO Rajbir Nanra says Zurich will discuss with employees changes which “could lead to a number of redundancies in [the] general insurance business in Australia”.

“The potential job losses are part of a program to improve operational efficiency to support Zurich’s strategy and growth plans in Australia.”

In a statement to insuranceNEWS.com.au this afternoon, Mr Nanra says Zurich has actively managed its people-related costs over the last six months by not replacing personnel as roles have become vacant.

And he says the drive for operational efficiencies will not prevent Zurich investing in improvements that will lead to better services for brokers and customers.

“We have evolved our strategy to support, meet and exceed our broker and customer needs into the future.”

Zurich’s program in Australia is part of a global group-wide transformation program, which aims to deliver annual run-rate cost savings of $US300 million ($421.7 million) by the end of next year and more than $US1 billion ($1.40 billion) by the end of 2018.

Zurich Australia’s Life & Investments business is not impacted by this announcement.

More information in our regular bulletin at 3pm today.