RSA today posted a 2014 pretax profit of £275m, recovering from a £244m loss a year earlier.
Under the stewardship of former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester, the insurer said it would restart dividend payments, with a final dividend payment of 2 pence per share.
The company's chief financial officer Richard Houghton will step down from the board of RSA on May 7, the firm said in a separate statement. He will leave the firm this year, once a successor is recruited, RSA said.
Today's profit figure came in slightly below the £299m forecast in a poll of analysts supplied by the company.
"The clean-up of past weaknesses was expensive," Hester said in a statement. "Market headwinds, especially from exchange rate changes and low interest rates, are a drag on results," he added.
Hester, who joined a year ago after the resignation of former CEO Simon Lee, set out plans last year to raise up to £1.6 billion in capital, tapping shareholders for nearly half and making up the rest from disposals and money saved by scrapping the company's dividend.
RSA raised its cost savings target today to an annualised £210m by 2016 from a previous £180m. It also set a new target of more than £250m for 2017.
"The clean-up of past weaknesses was expensive," Hester said in a statement.
"Market headwinds, especially from exchange rate changes and low interest rates, are a drag on results," he added.
Hester, who joined a year ago after the resignation of former CEO Simon Lee, set out plans last year to raise up to £1.6 billion in capital, tapping shareholders for nearly half and making up the rest from disposals and money saved by scrapping the company's dividend.
RSA raised its cost savings target today to an annualised £210m by 2016 from a previous £180m. It also set a new target of more than £250m for 2017.
