Zurich Australia today warned its general insurance employees that a planned restructure in its local operations could lead to “a number of redundancies”.

The move comes as the insurer cuts 440 jobs in the UK, and other positions in Switzerland, the US and Ireland, and speculation mounts that the future of Group CEO Martin Senn is in doubt.

Acting Zurich General Insurance Australia and New Zealand CEO Rajbir Nanra told insuranceNEWS.com.au the potential job losses are part of efficiency improvements to support growth plans.

As reported in our Breaking News, Mr Nanra has reassured staff they will be consulted about the restructure. Positions that have become vacant over the past six months have not been replaced in an effort to reduce the impact.

Zurich plans to invest in improvements leading to a better service for brokers and customers. The changes will not affect Zurich’s life and investments business in Australia.

The Australian strategy is part of a group-wide program aimed at saving $US300 million ($420.66 million) by the end of next year and more than $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) by the end of 2018.

Zurich ordered a comprehensive review of its business model after third-quarter net profit fell 79% to $US256 million ($359 million).

Several factors affected the result, including the insurer’s exposure to the massive chemical storage facility explosions in the Chinese port of Tianjin in August, plus large claims from US auto and construction industry clients.

Net profit for the nine months to September 30 fell 27% to $US2.27 billion ($3.19 billion) and the combined operating ratio for the same period weakened to 101.9% from 96%.

The results are putting pressure on Mr Senn, whose position was reported by a Swiss business publication to be under pressure as a result of the quarterly profit performance that led to the abandonment of a bid to take over British general insurer RSA.

A leading British recruitment firm has reportedly been retained by Zurich to find a replacement for Mr Senn, who became Group CEO in 2010.