Royal & Sun Alliance is to outsource its UK life operations to Unisys in a ten-year contract valued at £300 million.
The deal will see 1700 R&SA employees transfer to Unisys Insurance Services Limited (UISL), which will maintain R&SA's operations in Liverpool and Horsham.
Peter Hanby, managing director of Royal & SunAlliance's UK life operation, says: "This deal delivers highly competitive and directly variable administration costs for our life business, at the same time as providing our customers with good quality service in the future."
Like other UK insurance groups, R&SA is grappling with a prolonged earnings slump. The company said it would close its life unit last year, as part of a major restructuring that will see its global workforce fall by 10,000 to 40,000.
UISL is one of the UK's largest providers of managed insurance administration services, including 1.7 million policies for Abbey Life. At Royal & SunAlliance, UISL will handle the processing and administration of 2.4 million life and pensions policies.