AXA personal lines boss Steve Hardy quits

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Hardy steps down following portfolio cleansing in direct book; Blanc takes temporary charge

AXA UK personal lines chief executive Steve Hardy today stepped down, saying he wanted to explore new opportunities having successfully integrated the AXA and Swiftcover business.

In the interim, personal lines broker and corporate partnership will report to commercial head Amanda Blanc, and personal lines direct to AXA Ireland chief executive John O’Neil.

AXA group chief executive Paul Evans said: “I would like to thank Steve for the significant contribution he has made to AXA over the last five years.

“He has been instrumental in establishing a successful, low cost, multi-channel personal lines business that is well positioned for the future. I wish Steve every success with the next stage of his career.”

AXA personal lines performance

Hardy leaves AXA personal lines at a time when its performance is still very much under the microscope.

Hardy was a major shareholder in Swiftcover when he sold the business to AXA in 2007, for an estimated £110m.

Swiftcover was highly regarded as a state-of-the-art low cost motor insurer with the latest in claims validation and fraud checking systems.

The idea was to integrate the superb technology onto the rest of AXA’s personal lines platforms, and also benefit from the low-cost model. Hardy took charge as overall AXA personal lines chief executive in 2010.

However, performance at AXA personal lines has lagged and question marks hang over whether Swiftcover was growing its book too aggressively.

Even Admiral, which has grown its book over the last four years to become the UK’s second largest private motor insurer, was losing customers to Swiftcover in 2010.

Last month, Insurance Times revealed that despite two years of rate rises, AXA personal lines motor is running at 121% combined operating ratio. The personal lines business has been hit by prior year bodily injury claims.

The performance led AXA group to reveal in its first quarter results that it was “portfolio cleansing” its direct book, citing the UK as the main factor.

The cleansing led to its global direct personal motor revenues slumping 6% in the first quarter.

Changes at the top

The book cleansing comes as it emerged last month that underwriting chief Craig Staniland had left the company, the third senior departure in a year following the exits of former intermediary and partnership sales head Mike Keating and claims managing director Tony Peppard.

The coming and goings at AXA personal lines suggest that Hardy was keen to bring in fresh faces in bid to improve the company’s performance.

Nick Turner has been brought in as head of intermediary and partnerships to replace Keating, and he intends to work more closely with commercial lines to reap the benefits of the turnaround under Amanda Blanc.

Peppard was replaced as managing director of claims by AXA PPP customer service director Victoria Georgalakis in June last year.