Zurich General Insurance is set to manage all of its underwriting services for the SME and package business from Sydney.

A new “Xpress Underwriting Centre” has been established to handle the company’s business insurance, commercial motor and residential strata lines.

GM SME & Packages Shaun Feely says the centre will speed up quotation turnaround times while managing broker enquiries more efficiently.

“It will allow us to focus higher levels of expertise on brokers’ businesses,” he said. “Also the significant investment and improvements we have made with our new electronic platform, Z.streamXpress, has resulted in unprecedented growth and demand for our business insurance solutions.”

As part of its push into the SME market, Zurich is adding an additional 12 broker managers nationally.

“Zurich’s bigger distribution team will ensure brokers will have someone to talk to, either face-to-face or by phone,” Mr Feely said.