Direct Line to cut 550 jobs as motor insurance weighs

The insurer, whose brands also include Churchill and Privilege, said alongside its third quarter results that a "series of initiatives" aimed to deliver an additional £50m of cost savings next year.

Direct Line's motor insurance division has been struggling in a tough market.

While aggressive price hikes have helped the firm mitigate the effect of rising claim costs, they have also turned customers away to cheaper rivals. Most of them are online operators with lower cost bases.

Total gross written premium and associated fees reached £835.9m over the three months to the end of September.

That was down from the £1.3bn seen in the same period last year.

On a year to date basis, the figure was almost 3% up.

The UK-focused insurer has been attempting to reinvigorate its business under a turnaround strategy launched by chief executive Adam Winslow.

"We are in the early stages of a significant turnaround and our Q3 trading is not yet fully reflective of the actions we have taken," he told investors.

He said the additional cost savings would be delivered through improvements in procurement, technology and a simplified operating model.

Direct Line fended off a £3.17bn takeover attempt by Belgian rival Ageas earlier in the year.

Shares, which are 8% down in the year to date, opened in positive territory.

They were 0.6% higher in early deals.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said of the update: "Another 71,000 own-brand motor customers were lost over the third quarter as premiums were 3% higher than last year on average.

"The good news is that the rate of decline in customer numbers is slowing, as insurance prices are now starting to come down after some mammoth hikes were put through earlier in the year."

-SKY NEWS