Zurich is closing regional offices in Queensland and NSW and reducing staff numbers in other offices as part of its campaign to centralise underwriting services.

“Zurich will no longer be operating from office space in Albury and Toowoomba, nor have an individual on the ground in Maroochydore,” CEO Daniel Fogarty told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Staff numbers will be reduced on the Gold Coast, Newcastle and Tasmania, while there will be a new role created in Brisbane.

“Zurich will be supporting employees affected by these changes,” the company said.

insuranceNEWS.com.au understands some redundancies are likely.

Albury clients will now be serviced by the Shepparton office, while functions of the Toowoomba and Maroochydore offices in Queensland will be taken over by the Brisbane office.

Staff numbers on the Gold Coast will be cut from two to one, in Newcastle from three to one and in Tasmania from two to one.

Zurich will switch its small workers’ compensation operation in Tasmania from Hobart to Canberra.

The company rolled out its new arrangements in some regional areas last Thursday after starting to transfer it a few months ago in other centres.

In October last year Zurich announced it would streamline internal underwriting processes, bringing together two underwriting teams to form the Zurich Underwriting Centre, and set up state-focused commercial service delivery teams within the centre.

This has removed internal underwriting processes from the states, enabling state-based underwriters to spend more time with brokers and their customers.