RSA gets new finance chief

INSURER Royal & SunAlliance has made its last major break with the management team that oversaw the dramatic decline of the business by bringing in a new finance chief.

The group has poached George Culmer from Zurich Financial Services to replace Julian Hance, who was paid a £250,000 loyalty bonus to stay with the insurer last year.

RSA now faces the task of thrashing out a leaving date with Zurich, where Culmer is on six months' notice. Hance will leave RSA after the end of the financial year in March.

Culmer, 41, has worked at Zurich since 2000 as head of capital management. He previously spent nine years at Prudential. At RSA he will earn a base salary of £380,000 a year.

The move was widely welcomed in the City where RSA's shares nudged ahead 1/2p to 87 3/4p.

Roman Cizdyn, analyst at Commerzbank, said: ?They have got themselves a little gem here.‘

RSA is cutting jobs and selling off its life business in a desperate bid to return to profit under new chief executive Andy Haste.

Haste took over last April after a string of disastrous results forced out his predecessor Bob Mendelsohn.