Norwich Union (NU) is planning a major revamp of the specialist commercial lines business Bonus, the unit it inherited from CGU.

The Bonus brand will be retained along with key account executives, but the business operations are being migrated from their offices in Southend to the group's Norwich headquarters.

Last year Bonus wrote “well in excess of £100m” in premium income.

Brokers who sign up to the service must pledge to place at least £750,000 per year.

The insurer's intermediary business director Ken Wallace said: “We have agreed that the Bonus brand will be retained and Bonus account executives will be retained in brokers' offices.”

For the next year, Southend will continue to provide IT support and claims services to Bonus brokers.

But Wallace said NU was reviewing the IT platforms offered to Bonus users and hoped to eventually switch all services to Norwich.

Around 20 people including underwriters, sales support staff, and marketing staff will be affected by the switch.

NU expects the new operation to be up and running in Norwich by January, and plans to appoint a Norwich-based senior manager within the next few weeks to run the division.


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