NU Online News Service, April 2, 9:42 a.m. EDT

Loss battered Swiss Re announced today that it has named a new chief operating officer and plans to trim more than 1,000 jobs from its global workforce and close some offices.

Last month the company revealed that for 2008 the company had a net loss of $736.3 million and replaced Chairman Peter Forstmoser with Vice Chairman and current Credit Suisse Chairman Walter B. Kielholz.

The company said today that its new COO effective May 1 will be Agostino Galvagni. Mr. Galvagni, an Italian citizen, has been on the Swiss Re Executive Board since September 2005 and is currently Head of Insurance & Specialty in Client Markets.

Swiss Re said its job cuts and other stops to increase focus on profitable core business and strengthen its capital position will create cost reductions of CHF 400 million ($352.4 million) by the end of 2010.

The firm, which operates in more than 20 countries, said it cut its total of 11,560 employees by approximately 10 percent over the next twelve months.

Stefan Lippe, Swiss Re's Chief Executive Officer, said the appointment of Mr. Galvagni, who has "in-depth business and client servicing experience," will help "to apply best practice in staying client focused, while we are accelerating our plan to build a stronger firm."

In line with a focus on profitable core (re)insurance business, the company said it will continue "to explore opportunities to free up capital in order to deploy it to the most profitable business segments."

The company said at the same time it will "concentrate on conservatively managing the assets generated through (re)insurance activities and continue de-risking the investment portfolio."

Swiss Re noted that it has already reinforced its financial strength with capital measures approved by shareholders March 13.

The company said it plans to streamline its the worldwide office network and will operate through offices solely dedicated to servicing clients, and will further consolidate support resources into fewer locations in order to achieve economies of scale.

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