New Axa Insurance CEO Maso insists he is no 'Mr Fix It'

The new chief executive of Axa Insurance, Philippe Maso, has insisted that he is not a Mr Fix-It and is here for the long term.

Speaking to the insurance trade press for the first time on Friday he also said that despite criticism of the insurer’s service, moves were already underway before his appointment to correct problems and that the insurer was often no worse than many of its rivals.

Following the news of Mr Maso replacing Peter Hubbard, there had been speculation that the former Axa UK finance director was likely to be a temporary appointment bought in to turn the business around.

However, Mr Maso told Post: “I have been living here for years, I have my children here, it is the market I know the best, s I could not do a similar job in a different part of the market with the same understanding. I am here for the long term, I am not going t disappear, I have no prospect to go abroad.

“And there is nothing particularly to fix. It is about developing the business here. This is more about an evolution now Peter has gone.”

He told Post: “It is not abut blaming anyone because I think the success f Axa Insurance over the last three years has been great, but we need now at this turning pint that we conslidate the conditions in which we operate t make sure the profits that we have are sustainable.”

Reflecting on Axa Insurance’s service Mr Maso concluded: “I do think that we have had more bad press than we deserve because they are some service issues from last year where we were caught at the worst moment when systems were changing, and big events were out there and it was an unfortunate.

"However, that is never a good enough explanition and I think the whole industry lacks quality of service and within that landscape we do no better than our competitors and that is a big issue.

“Having said that over the past 18 months Axa has put customer centricity at the heart of its strategy in the UK, and in Axa Insurance and I think this is going to show signs of improvement.”

- See this week's Post for a the full interview with Mr Maso.