Suncorp Acting CEO Steve Johnston has assured brokers they are a key part of the company’s strategy after it had previously highlighted a retail sales approach.

“We have had a very aspirational narrative,” he told a Synergy event in Melbourne attended by intermediary partners including insurance and mortgage brokers. “We wanted to be the Amazon of financial services and we wanted to be a supermarket for financial services products.

“When I talked to a lot of investors, they didn’t quite understand what we were. Were we a bank, were we an insurance company, were we a technology company, were we a platform business?”

Mr Johnston says it is time for the group to focus on its insurance and banking identity, and the partners with which it works.

“One of the other things I am conscious of is that we had a very retail centric narrative,” he said. “It was very much focussed around retail activities and it tended to walk past [brokers] and those that work with us on a partnership basis.”

Mr Johnston, who joined Suncorp in 2006 and has served as CFO since 2013, took over as Acting CEO in late May from Michael Cameron, who left the company as the board sought change.

Mr Cameron had driven the contentious Marketplace strategy, which had promoted the breadth of financial products that could be accessed through Suncorp and third-party providers.

The selection process for a new CEO is still underway, but Mr Johnston says he accepted the Acting CEO position on the understanding that the business would not stand still and decisions could be made to drive the company forward. Suncorp is due to deliver its annual earnings results on Wednesday.

Mr Johnston and Insurance CEO Gary Dransfield are considered the top internal candidates to take on the CEO role. It is understood the board is also looking more widely. Analysts say the new person should have insurance expertise.

Mr Dransfield confirmed to insuranceNEWS.com.au that he had expressed interest in the role but declined to comment further while the board completes its selection process.