Norwich Union Life has signed an agreement to outsource the administration of almost three million of its existing life and pension policies to Swiss Re.
Undr the deal around 1000 Norwich Union employees will be transferred to Swiss Re under the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) regulations.
Swiss Re will take on the administration of the policies from October, enabling Norwich Union to start decommissioning 220 of its 550 product systems.
Customers, policies and funds will remain actively managed by Norwich Union. The UK insurer also retains the exclusive rights to market its products to these customers.
The outsourcing move is part of Norwich Union's plans to rationalise legacy systems and increase efficiency.
In September last year the UK insurer said it was cutting 4000 jobs by the end of 2008, of which 500 IT roles will be outsourced to third party suppliers and 1000 jobs will be shifted to offshore centres in India.
The redundancy programme will cost the firm £250 million, but save an equivalent amount from 2008.