Jobs axed as Swiss Life exits UK

250 jobs will be lost at Swiss Life's Liverpool office, based in the Albert Dock

Swiss Life, Switzerland's biggest insurer, is to axe 250 jobs as it ends 36 years in the UK market with the sale of its last British business.

The company has sold its group income protection and critical illness division to US rival UnumProvident for an undisclosed sum.

The move will see Swiss Life close its Liverpool-based financial protection department in July, at the cost of 250 jobs.

Some of the staff will be invited to reapply for other positions, but they will have to relocate to Bristol.

The redundancies, which come on top of 200 job losses announced in July, will take place over the next two years.

Cash crisis

Swiss Life has also stopped selling individual life insurance policies.

Last year, the group announced plans to sell its UK operations and concentrate on continental markets - but it failed to find a buyer.

The sale is part of a move to refocus on its most profitable insurance businesses.

Swiss Life hopes the strategy will help it return to profit this year after it posted a record loss of 1.7bn Swiss francs ($1.2bn; £780m) last year.

The group has also been looking at ways to cut back its Spanish and Italian operations, and has launched a aimed at rising £543m in cash.

Chief executive Rolf Dorig said: "We want to focus all our energies on our core business and restore profitability."

"By transferring group risk business from Swiss Life UK to UnumProvident we can take a further step in this direction."