INSURANCE staff have been told their futures are safe following three months of worry.

Bosses at AXA Insurance told 100 staff at the firm's base in Bradshawgate, Bolton, of a planned merger of the operation in Bolton and the company's Direct Commercial operation in Glasgow.

Staff from the Spirit underwriting unit were called to a presentation in the Pack Horse hotel in Nelson Square to be told the news.

It comes three months after the Bolton Evening News revealed the company was to undertake a review of its commercial insurance operations.

The move will see underwriting work with smaller brokers in Bolton merge with Glasgow, which deals with corporate partners through direct and field sales and a large customer service call centre.

The new merged business will be known as AXA SME Solutions. The management team in Bolton, led by Andy Halstead, will report to Glasgow.

Alan Beale, director of AXA SME Solutions, said: "This move is a very positive one. It is about taking best practice from both sites and using it to the advantage of both the business and our customers."

Mr Beale added that there would be no redundancies as a result of the merger.

He said: "We have downsized slightly, but that has been through redeployment and natural attrition. The only redundancy is one guy here in Glasgow, and that was deliberate because he's finished his project anyway.

"The new operation will remain split between sites in Glasgow and Bolton. There is no plan to move to a single site."

All general insurance businesses came under Financial Services Authority regulation from January 14, 2005.

There had been concerns that a percentage of the smaller brokers would not be FSA compliant, but Mr Beale said this played no part in this move, which was an "independent, AXA decision."