Stephen Hester: RSA spread itself too thinly

RSA was guilty of  “spreading itself too thin”, according to its new chief executive Stephen Hester,

But, in an interview with the Daily Mail, Hester also said that the troubled insurer’s recovery is going better than planned.

Hester told the Mail: “RSA was a classic case of a company that was spreading itself to thin. And in so doing it was not managing its most important businesses as well as it should have done.

“So we need to concentrate our efforts and energies on the places we ought to best, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Hester said that the company is six months into its turnaround, and noted that it has suffered some setbacks. For example, he admitted that cleaning up the accounting and reserving problems in its Ireland operation was bigger than first thought.

He said: “Like every single turnaround, some things are going better than others, but net-net, I think we’re ahead of where I thought we’d be now.”