Zurich Insurance Group is searching for a new CEO to replace Martin Senn, who quit after a series of “setbacks” rocked the group.

Mr Senn will leave at the end of the year, but Chairman Tom de Swaan has taken over as Interim CEO with immediate effect until a replacement is found.

The pressure on Mr Senn had intensified as the Swiss insurer suffered a number of blows in a turbulent year, which culminated with a global job retrenchment exercise, which last week grew to 1800 worldwide.

He has been with Zurich for 10 years, including the past six as CEO.

“There have been some setbacks in recent months, but I am convinced that we have put in place the right measures for Zurich to reach its targets,” Mr Senn said.

“Zurich is a profitable, well-capitalised company with outstanding employees.

“It enjoys an excellent reputation with customers around the world and sustainably delivers attractive dividends to shareholders.”

The insurer will reduce staff numbers in Australia, the UK, the US and Switzerland under a drive to lower costs and raise productivity, after its third-quarter net profit plunged 79% to $US256 million ($350 million).

Net profit for the nine months to September 30 dropped 27% to $US2.27 billion ($3.1 billion) and the combined operating ratio for the same period weakened to 101.9% from 96%.

The poor performance was blamed on the Tianjin chemical blasts in China and large claims from US auto and construction industry clients.

Zurich was forced to withdraw its bid to take over British general insurer RSA because of the poor financial results.

And it has withdrawn from selling general insurance in the United Arab Emirates, deeming the cost of developing a viable business too high.

It has also stopped selling life policies in Singapore following a business review, and is not ruling out some redundancies in the southeast Asian financial hub.

Current life policyholders will be unaffected, and the Singapore general insurance business continues to operate as normal.

“Our decision… is a necessary action as part of prioritising investment where we can compete to win and establish a distinctive position,” Zurich Life Asia-Pacific CEO Colin Morgan said.

“We spent a long time exploring the different options, but this unfortunately was the most feasible and practical under the current and foreseeable circumstances.”

Singapore media reports say Zurich has about 17,000 life policyholders in the country.