British insurer RSA will partly reverse its offshoring strategy by closing Indian call centres and moving all 350 customer-facing jobs in claims, sales and servicing back to the UK.

“This decision was based on feedback from customers who told us they don’t feel reassured dealing with someone overseas, wherever it is,” a company spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

RSA will maintain some offices in India, but will no longer have customer-facing jobs there, he says.

“We’re happy with the work our teams in India do, and they will continue to work on back-office functions in areas such as billing reconciliation.”

The first 100 claims-handling roles returned to Britain this month, while 250 sales and servicing positions will move by the middle of next year.

Previously, one-third of calls from personal lines and affinity customers were picked up in India.

RSA, which operates in 32 countries, says about 280 of the 350 jobs will be filled internally with staff who were otherwise at risk of redundancy.

Australian insurers pursuing offshoring strategies include QBE, which has moved roles such as procurement and claims to the Philippines, and Suncorp, which has moved some jobs such as accountancy and reporting to India.