INSURANCE firm Aviva said it may cut 1,500 jobs over the next two years from a total workforce of 31,500 following its planned £5.6bn acquisition of rival Friends Life.
The job cuts are part of the insurer's plans to generate £225m in annual cost savings.
Aviva, which is one of York’s major employers, said it was too early to identify specific teams, roles or locations for the job cuts.
The proposed takeover is the largest insurance deal in the UK since the merger of CGU and Norwich Union in 2000, which created Aviva.
The firm employs 16,000 people and Friends Life 3,500 in the UK but analysts had anticipated that the bulk of cost savings would be from redundancies.
Both Aviva and Friend's Life shareholders are required to vote on the deal at separate meetings on March 26.
"We appreciate that this news may be disconcerting for employees and we would look to ensure that any redundancies are kept to a minimum wherever possible, by using vacancies and natural turnover," an Aviva spokesman said.
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