Zurich’s decision to merge its commercial and global corporate operations worldwide may mean jobs are cut in Australia, the insurer admits.

The new unit, called commercial insurance, will be led globally by James Shea, who has been recruited from AIG.

Group CEO Mario Greco says the move “will allow us to better utilise our skills, systems and capabilities in the individual countries and across the world”.

Asked about the impact for the Australian operation, a Zurich spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au the focus is “on simplifying our go-to-market approach and to share skills and resources that would otherwise be scarce or duplicated”.

“This will naturally lead to efficiencies in a number of areas, not just (and mostly not) headcount.”

CEO General Insurance Australia and New Zealand Raj Nanra says the commercial and corporate teams already work “extremely closely”.

“The changes…will enable us to build on this teamwork as well as our success to date and further strengthen our customer focus,” he said.

Mr Shea, who was most recently president of global financial lines at AIG, becomes CEO Commercial Insurance. Global Corporate CEO Thomas Hürlimann will step down but continue to work on special projects.

Zurich says it will create a global specialty lines function within commercial insurance, including credit lines (political risk, surety and trade credit), marine, aviation and energy.

Its board has also appointed Mr Shea, CEO Asia-Pacific Jack Howell and CEO Latin America Claudia Dill as members of the executive committee, completing the transformation that started in June.

insuranceNEWS.com.au also understands from market sources that previous Asia-Pacific CEO Stuart Spencer has left to company to pursue other opportunities. Mr Spencer was based in Hong Kong, and was responsible for much of the Zurich Australia revamp that began last year. Zurich was not available for comment.