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Insurers Axa and Brit were heaped in online coverage recently but for very different reasons.

Axa’s announcement that it was to axe 560 UK jobs became the most read story on Insurancetimes.co.uk with the industry keen to find out the details of this latest round of job cuts.

This is the latest move in Axa Insurance chief executive Philippe Maso’s continued transformation of the business and came after a 12-month review of the entire business.

The BBC website reported that 120 jobs would be lost at Axa’s Ipswich office, its largest base, where it employs about 1,600 staff in sales, claims and administration. The story even made the news pages of the Visit Bulgaria website.

Elsewhere in the online world, insurer Brit came clean on its interest in rival Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer. The Financial Times website was one of many to report the news, that saw Brit issue the following statement after weeks of speculation: “Brit confirms it is in discussions regarding a possible all-share offer for Chaucer. There can be no certainty that an offer will be forthcoming.”

At insurancetimes.co.uk, QBE Europe’s board restructure and JLT’s acquisition of Ingham Underwriting through its own MGA Thistle also received a lot of attention.

You can now view all Insurancetimes.co.uk’s exclusive photo galleries on a dedicated page on the site. Send me your photos and they could appear here. And this week, look out for pictures from the 2009 Airmic conference in Bournemouth.

Online top five:

AXA slashes 560 jobs

Insurer says cuts will not affect service

Swiftcover acquires claims firm

Axa-owned business to bring claims operations in house

QBE Europe in board restructure

New roles created in reshuffle

JLT acquires £19m GWP underwriter

Deal expands broker's MGA Thistle Underwriters

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