Aon is to slash its UK workforce by up to 750 from a total of 6,800 staff over the next two years.

The cuts will come almost entirely from the broking giant's specialty division, as first revealed by Insurance Times in August.

Dennis Mahoney, chairman and chief executive of Aon UK, told Insurance Times: "The specialty division was the most dependent upon subscription-based payments and therefore the part of the business most affected by [Eliot Spitzer's probe]. It is sad to lose staff, but the whole industry has had to adapt."

The specialty division includes energy, marine, aviation, crisis management, professional risk and specie sections.

Mahoney said it was no longer viable for brokers to undertake some back office functions they have traditionally carried out for underwriters, making many administrative staff superfluous.

He said: "We have moved to a different economic model where everything is done for the client. Spitzer asked why clients had to pay for market processes, and under this model they no longer do."

Aon will begin employee consultation on 27 October. It is expected that the cuts will be achieved through a mix of natural attrition and redundancies.

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