Zurich plans further job cuts
Zurich has announced plans to withdraw 8,000 roles by the end of 2018 after announcing a 37% reduction in profits for 2015.
The roles include the 440 job cuts made last year in the UK and hundreds of roles being made redundant in Germany.
Speaking to Post, Zurich’s interim CEO, Tom de Swaan, said, ‘We have accelerated our efficiency programme and now aim to exceed the previously communicated cost savings target for 2016 of $300m (£206m), and are on our way to achieving group-wide cost savings of more than $1bn by the end of 2018.’
‘These savings will be achieved through the application of new technology, lean processes and the offshoring and near shoring of some activities. We estimate that as a result of these necessary measures around 8000 roles across Zurich will be affected by the end of 2018. This figure includes initiatives completed or announced in 2015.’
A Zurich spokesperson said the locations and businesses affected have yet to be fully determined. The spokesperson added that some of the roles may be transferred to shared services and the insurer wasn’t ‘necessarily speaking of redundancies’.
Zurich’s global operating profits fell 37% in 2015 to $2.9bn (£2bn) compared with $4.64bn in 2014. Overall after tax net income fell from $3.95bn in 2014 to $1.84bn last year. Fourth quarter net income crashed from $860m in 2014 to a loss of $424m in Q4 2015.
