"The successful divestment of Direct Line Group is one of our priorities and we have confidence that Mike will help us get this done," RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester said in a statement on Friday.

Biggs, currently chairman of life insurer Resolution , was previously a finance director at Aviva. He helped oversee the 1997 demutualisation and stock market flotation of Norwich Union, now part of Aviva.

RBS was ordered by European regulators to offload its insurance arm, which includes Britain's biggest car insurer, as payback for a taxpayer-funded bailout it received during the 2008 financial crisis.

The 82 percent state-owned lender plans to float Direct Line Group, named after its best known brand, in the second half of the year.