LONDON: British insurer Aviva said on Tuesday that chief executive Andrew Moss had stepped down with immediate effect, after more than half of its shareholders voted last week against executive pay awards.

"Aviva plc announces that Andrew Moss, chief executive officer, will be leaving the group and will cease to be chief executive with immediate effect," it said in a statement.

Aviva said its incoming chairman John McFarlane would assume executive duties with immediate effect, tasked with helping to find a new chief executive officer (CEO).

"My first priorities are to regain the respect of our shareholders by eliminating the discount in our share price and to find internally or externally the very best leader to be our future CEO," McFarlane said in a statement.

"I will meet all of the major investors over the coming days and weeks."

The shock boardroom shake-up comes after 54 percent of Aviva shareholders voted against the insurer's remuneration report.

Including abstentions, almost 59 percent of investors refused to endorse the group's executive pay policy, in a result announced at Aviva's annual general meeting last Thursday in London.

The rejection vote was non-binding but nevertheless a major embarrassment for Aviva, which is Britain's second-biggest insurance company after Prudential.

Aviva's defeat came despite Moss bowing to investor pressure and waiving a pay rise that would have taken his salary above £1 million ($1.6 million, 1.2 million euros).

Moss was last month awarded a 4.6-percent increase on his annual salary of £960,000 but decided to decline it.