News in brief

Genworth to axe 1,000 staff

Payment protection insurer Genworth Financial is cutting 1,000 jobs from its global workforce of 7,300 people. It currently employs about 250 people in the UK. Michael Frazier, Genworth’s chairman and chief executive, said it was streamlining the business in an “unprecedented period”. Its aim is to reduce pre-tax operating expenses by $100m (£65.5m) to $150m by the end of this year. The company expects a pre-tax non-operating charge of about $45m in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Heath Lambert expands team

Heath Lambert has boosted its high net worth division after poaching the head of Marsh’s private clients’ division. Lorna McFadzean is joining Heath’s Edinburgh team as associate director. Fiona Powell, formerly private clients’ manager at Doodson Broking Group, joined Heath’s Manchester office in December. The company said it would continue to build its regional operation during 2009.

Zurich moves document work

Swiss Post will scan and archive about 400,000 documents a day for Zurich after agreeing a partnership with the insurer. It will take over in the UK and Switzerland within the next three months, and then Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria. Employees in Zurich’s document management department will transfer to Swiss Post. Claudia Dill, chief operating officer of Zurich Europe General Insurance, said the move would make Zurich “an even leaner organisation”.

London digital move ‘on course’

The London market is on course with plans to transfer claims and information processing from paper to digital, says Peter Harmer, chairman of the London Market Reform Group. He said London needed to change to keep its slot as the world’s leading marketplace. Jonathan Palmer-Brown, chairman of the London & International Insurance Brokers’ Association, said the move was a chance to improve efficiency and cut costs, and to bring consistency across international markets.