She will succeed Rob Devey, who will leave the group at the end of October 2013.

Hunt joins from Standard Life, where she was chief financial officer. Before joining Standard Life, she held a number of senior leadership positions, first at Royal & Sun Alliance and then at Aviva, where she was chief financial officer at Norwich Union.

"I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jackie Hunt as successor to Rob Devey. Jackie joins Prudential with a proven track record of delivery in the highly-competitive UK insurance market. I am delighted that a person of her talent and experience is joining the group," said Tidjane Thiam, group chief executive of Prudential.

Earlier this year, the- then Financial Services Authority  fined companies in the Prudential group a total of £30 million (about $45 million) for breaching FSA Principles and UK Listing Authority Listing Principles. For more on this story, click here.

Prudential has £405 billion in assets under management as at 31 December 2012 and some seven million customers.