IAG (ASX:IAG) share price gains after Chief Risk Officer resignation

IAG shares have crawled higher today, despite an executive's resignation.

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The Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price is edging higher today after the company announced the resignation of its Chief Risk Officer (CRO).

IAG shares are now changing hands at $5, a slight 0.6% dip into the green during this afternoon's session.

What did IAG announce?

In an announcement made earlier this morning, IAG announced that David Watts resigned from his role as CRO of the company.

IAG's managing director and CEO, Nick Hawkins, was thankful for Watts' contributions to the company, during his 3 year tenure in the role.

No reason was given for the departure, and Hawkins has an extensive history of holding CRO designations.

Prior to his time at the insurance giant, Watts spent time at Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), first joining the bank as its CRO back in 2009, before leaving for a "Portfolio Integrity" role for IAG in 2018.

Watts will continue as IAG's head risk manager "into the new year", as internal and external executive search processes have yet to start.

Investors appear relatively unfazed by the news and haven't bought or sold either way. Although, the IAG share price has still gained a good 8 cents on the day.

Yet, it's been a disappointing past week for IAG's share price. In fact, in the last 7 days, IAG shares have fallen 4.4% out of the money. This puts shareholders 7% in the red for the past month.

CMC Hospitality's application to start a representative proceeding against IAG in Federal Court certainly isn't helping the picture, that's for sure.

It hasn't been served with the application yet, so IAG has been quiet on the issue. However, it did state that the application is related to "business interruption losses" due to COVID-19.

Nonetheless, this is a factor that may continue weighing in on IAG's share price as more details are revealed.

What did management say?

Speaking on today's announcement, CEO Nick Hawkins said:

David has driven a big program of work to strengthen risk management and uplift our risk culture
across the company. A key achievement is the successful delivery of our risk maturity program
which has improved our risk systems, policies and processes, and launched our integrated risk
management system.

IAG share price snapshot

It's not all bad news for the IAG share price. It is still up 7% this year to date and has gained around 11% over the past year.

However, both of these results have lagged the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s return of around 25% over the past 12 months.

The author Zach Bristow has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Insurance Australia Group Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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