Aviva reveals cost of recruiting UK CEO

The document, published on Budget Day, also reported that Mr Matthews had been awarded an annual basic salary of £720,000. His predecessor Mark Hodges, now group chief executive at Towergate, had an annual salary of £635,000.

Mr Matthews was appointed on 2 December last year and the £2.49m figure was broken down as £470,000 cash in the first month of employment with the remainder being formed by a conditional share award.

This was split into three equal sections to be paid each March until 2014