New Aviva chief executive Maurice Tulloch has announced a major restructuring which will see the group streamlined into five divisions and both substantial investment and cost cutting between now and 2022.

The company - which has been under pressure from the City to announce a clear future strategy - will move to five divisions: Investments, Savings & Retirement; UK Life; General Insurance; Europe Life; and Asia Life.

In June Aviva announced plans to cut costs by £300m annually by 2022 with 1,800 jobs to be axed over the next three years from a total workforce of 30,000. The firms expects most redundancies to be made through natural turnover of staff. The company expects £60m of savings this year and £150m in 2020.

Mr Tulloch said one of his main aims with the shake-up was to deliver long term value to shareholders and improve returns on capital. The company will invest £1.3bn over the next three years to transform Aviva into a “simpler, stronger and better business.”

The company has decided to retain its Singapore and China businesses but Indonesia and Vietnam remain under review.

The new Investments, Savings and Retirement business, which includes Aviva Investors and has £346bn under management, will be one of the largest divisions in the group and will be run by Euan Munro.

Aviva says the division will “build on our expertise from across the group to provide the first holistic savings and retirement solutions business in the UK.”

The firm believes its has put behind it platform problems that affected business and believes it now has a ‘scalable’ platform business.

Mr Tulloch, who took over from Andy Briggs as CEO in April, said the division would aim to be a key player in the UK retirement savings market and was already a major player in workplace pensions where it has 3.5m customers.

For 2019, Aviva expects operating profit to be broadly in line with expectations despite weaker results in Aviva Investors and UK personal lines insurance.

The Life division will be run by Angela Darlington.

Maurice Tulloch said: “Aviva is a business with ambition. We are investing in new services, new products and new technology. We expect growth, especially in higher return businesses such as General Insurance and Asia and also, from our new Investment, Savings & Retirement business.

“Aviva’s focus is delivering sustainable growing returns to shareholders. Our forecast cash flows are more than sufficient to sustain our dividend, reduce debt and grow Aviva. Our return on equity target of 12% underpins our progressive dividend for the long-term.

“Our strategic review has been rigorous and thorough. I am committed to running Aviva better. We will be more commercially focused, manage costs rigorously and be more disciplined in how we invest. We will excel at the basics, giving customers a simpler, faster and more convenient service. Getting these fundamentals right will result in a simpler, stronger, better Aviva, while also improving returns for shareholders.”