More than 300 jobs are to go at a Liverpool-based Norwich Union (NU) customer centre.
The centre, which predominantly handles customer service calls for Norwich Union Direct, will close by 31 October 2006.
NU said the growth of its online sales together with improved processes and increased efficiency has lead to necessary reduction in call centre staff.
The insurer said the Liverpool operations would be moved to other existing NU centres in the UK and India.
NU chief executive Simon Machell said: “It is always a difficult decision to close any part of our operation with the resulting impact on people and jobs, but we have to remain competitive in a constantly-changing market.
“We will do everything we can to provide support and where possible redeployment for the people affected, and to keep the number of compulsory redundancies as small as possible.”
The motor customer services team will be moved to existing UK and India centres. Home customer advice will go to Bishopbriggs in Glasgow, and customer satisfaction, cancellation and administrative activity will move to Sheffield.
In September 2004 NU publicly announced its intention to create 7000 jobs offshore by the end of 2007.
This was increased to 7800 following the acquisition of RAC in March 2005 by Aviva, Norwich Union's parent company.
In a separate announcement, NU also announced changes to its technical support team which will result in up to 17 compulsory redundancies in Sheffield.
