Dealer group Australian Financial Services (AFS) has dropped long-serving CEO Peter Daly.

Group Director Phil Burke will replace him temporarily while the group seeks a replacement.

Chairman Barry Stephens says the company’s non-executive directors want to take the business in a different direction.

Despite Mr Stephens’s assurances earlier this month that Mr Daly’s position at AFS was secure, there have been rumblings since December, when founding shareholder Peter Conacher called for Mr Daly’s removal.

Mr Daly had been CEO at AFS since April 2004.