By John Grant Sovereign has appointed Charles Anderson as the new head of the business replacing Simon Blair who transferred to the Commonwealth Bank in July. Anderson has broad financial services experience having spent the last 10 years in the life industry and prior to that he had been with Lloyds Bank. Since 1999 he had senior positions with UK based insurer Aviva that included, MD Norwich Union Personal Finance, then as Partnership Business Director for Norwich Union Life which included UK Board level responsibilities. More recently he has been MD Financial Services for Asia where he established and ran six business units across India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.

This is the second recent senior New Zealand appointment by the group. Interestingly both have come from outside of the bank. All senior appointments with Sovereign and ASB have normally come from within the organisation. The recent appointment of Charles Pink as CEO for the ASB and today's announcement herald a new direction for the bank that could signal some change for the group in New Zealand. Ralph Norris who is the CEO of the parent was previously CEO of ASB Bank in New Zealand. Sovereign is a fully owned subsidary of the ASB Group. "”"”"”"” John Grant edits the insurance coverage on interest.co.nz