Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA) has announced further restructuring plans with the loss of 260 jobs in its information systems (IS) division.
But RSA gave some hope to around 60 of those staff, claiming it is trying to secure an outsourcing deal with a third party so their jobs are redeployed.
R&SA UK director for strategic change and IS Tony Brown told Insurance Times: "We hope to negotiate a deal so we can outsource staff working in supervised systems to an external UK-based partner.
"It could take between six to eight months but we hope they will take people."
He would not name the company involved or how the deal would be structured. "It is very early days," he added.
R&SA will now focus on its "key sites" - the Liverpool and Horsham offices - for its IS operations. Overall the IS division employs 960 staff.
Job cuts will be spread across its Bristol, Halifax, London, Chelmsford, Manchester and Bournemouth offices.
Brown said the decision was part of "on-going changes in reshaping our back office" and there was clear "duplication" in the IS teams.
It will affect key systems in both personal lines and commercial lines, he said.
R&SA chief executive Duncan Boyle said this move was "completely separate" from the Enterprise centre closures and admitted this was not the end of the restructuring.
R&SA also announced that Peter Hanby as its new UK Director, Life. He also joins the UK executive team. Stephan Pater is leaving the company after 30 years' service.
Boyle said: "Stephan is a great leader for taking companies forward but since the closure to new business in August on the life side he decided he wanted to pursue other opportunities.
"Peter will lead the life business through its final stages to make sure it is run efficiently and we give good service to our existing clients."
