Legal & General’s Nigel Wilson sends slap in the face to Breedon as associates shudder – Inside Track

Nigel Wilson has hardly put a foot wrong since re­placing Tim Breedon, his po-faced predecessor, as chief executive of Legal & General just over two years ago.

 

While investors are happy with the outspoken Geordie, however, his fellow insurance bosses are not – at least not after his latest bombshell dropped yesterday.

 

Confirming L&G’s decision to terminate its membership of the Association of British Insurers, Mr Wilson argued that stakeholder engagement “will have to be more individually tailored to individual company situations… [and is] less suited to uniform representation through one trade body”.

 

Intentional or not, it’s a bit of a slap in the face for Breedon, who chaired the ABI until 2012.

 

More broadly, it will have sent a shudder through other trade associations across the financial sector.

 

The diversity of their membership bases at a time of increased political and regulatory scrutiny on banks and insurers is exacerbating tensions, which means that decisions like L&G’s will become more common.

 

That’s not to say that Wilson has made the right decision. Deliberately isolating L&G from its peers may turn out to be a productive route for the company, but it could also end up looking somewhat reckless.

 

It’s too delicious a story to ignore: Mark Tucker, the boss of Asian insurer AIA, plotting a £45bn takeover of Prudential, the FTSE-100 giant he used to run.

 

It’s not completely fanciful, and of course, there would be the exquisitely ironic backdrop of the Pru’s aborted bid for AIA in 2010.

 

Tidjane Thiam, Tucker’s successor and one of Britain’s outstanding bosses, used this week’s half-year results to lament the loss of that “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. 

 

He’s still sore about that failure and the ludicrous censure he received from the City watchdog last year. But he needn’t worry that predator is about to become prey. 

 

Recent reports of “sightings” of Tucker emerging from the Financial Conduct Authority’s Canary Wharf HQ – presumably to negotiate a takeover of the Pru – are illusory.

 

Tucker, I’m told, has not set foot in London for many months.

 

Whether he plans to do so soon may depend more on the credibility of his beloved Chelsea's title challenge than anything as adventurous as a bid for his former employer.

 

It’s hard enough to find the chairman of a bank these days, but a woman chairman?

 

That summed up reaction to a report that Rona Fairhead, the former Pearson finance director, is in the running to take over from Sir David Walker at Barclays next year. Fairhead has a lot going for her. 

 

Her stint on the board of HSBC is due to end shortly, and her position chairing its North American business equips her to deal with Barclays’ myriad challenges there.

 

There’s another intriguing fact, not made public until now: Fairhead was last year on a very short shortlist for the Lloyds Banking Group chairmanship, which eventually went to Lord Blackwell.

 

So there’s much to weigh in her favour. My money, though, would still be on her turning up somewhere other than Barclays.