AIG has announced it will be adjusting its organisational structure as part of the strategy to address its customer needs and respond to future market opportunities.
The firm will be moving away from its commercial and consumer segment split and will introduce three new segments: general insurance led by Peter Zaffino as CEO, life & retirement, led by Kevin Hogan, CEO; and a stand-alone, technology-enabled platform, led by Seraina Macia, CEO.
As a result of the re-organisation, Rob Schimek, CEO of commercial at the insurer will be leaving at the end of next month after 12 years with the company.
The new general insurance and life & retirement divisions will both have distinct business units within them, reflecting the target markets. General insurance will include commercial, personal insurance, and U.S. and international field operations, while life & retirement will include group retirement, individual retirement, life, and institutional markets.
President and CEO at AIG, Brian Duperreault had been promising changes since he took over and this is a relatively big one, in terms of how AIG goes about its business.
Commenting on the changes Duperreault said: “These changes are designed to best position AIG for the future, as a growing, profitable leader in the insurance industry that is famous for its underwriting excellence. We believe this structure will maximise our global platform by empowering our local geographies, and provide our businesses with the greatest competitive advantage and ability to serve our clients.”
At this stage, analysts have said they do not believe the general and life split implicates that the life division may be offloaded; however it will provide options for the future.
The structural changes could make reinsurance buying more efficient, offering AIG a new way to look at its protection buying and bringing all property related business under one division.
The breaking out of technology operations could benefit the group greatly, by allowing tech initiatives to be operated at the group level in order to maximise efficiency they offer to the insurer.