Aviva overtaken by affairs

Aviva's hopes of announcing its European expansion plans with a fanfare today were pushed off course after its married chief executive admitted he had been involved in an office affair.

The romance, which first began to leak in the Evening Standard's City Spy on Tuesday, involved the insurance giant's chief executive Andrew Moss and Deirdre Moffat — a human resources manager at Aviva — whom Moss had seconded to work in his office.

The chief executive, a father of four who was paid £2.2 million last year, has now left his family for a long-term relationship with Moffat. She recently left Aviva.

Leaked details forced chairman Lord Sharman to make a statement that Moss retained his "full confidence".

But Aviva last night cancelled a planned interview which had been set up to announce its shift to a new pan-European strategy. The group is centralising its continental European operations in a holding company in low-tax Ireland.

The company's announcement was made by European head Andrea Moneta who, in a coincidence that will cause more red faces, is also the boss of Moss's lover's husband — head of HR for Aviva in Europe.

Moneta refused to talk about the affair today but instead issued a statement claiming that Aviva was making "a quantum leap in Europe".

It already operates in 15 European countries, where income contributed 44% of operating profit in the first half of the year.