?Allianz will soon be consolidating its claims divisions in a move that could cut up to 37 jobs.

The company is reorgan-ising its claims divisions based on specialisation and will be closing its Leeds and Glasgow offices.

Commercial property claims will handled in Birmingham, with motor and personal injury claims looked after at three centres in Bristol, Manchester and Woking.

Casualty claims will be taken care of at Milton, Keynes and Woking.

There are 13 staff members working in the Glasgow office and 24 in Leeds.

Divisional claims manager Roy Hebburn said: “As with any major change I fear there will be redundancies.”

Hebburn said Allianz was exploring alternative employment options within the company for the 37 staff affected.

Alternative roles would depend on whether their skills were transferable and if they were willing to relocate.

The insurer said there might also be opportunities for outplacement support,.

A spokesman said: “Allianz hopes to keep staff loss to an absolute minimum as overall there is no change to its staff requirement across the organisation.”

The decision to segment claims came out of a review conducted by the insurer in 2003.

Hebburn said: “Segment-ation of claims means we can apply the right level of staff with the right level of skills.”

The insurer said the move signalled its intention to become the claims market leader in terms of service delivery and technical excellence.

Allianz said it had already begun explaining the new structure to brokers and so far the feedback had been positive.

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