South African-born Hunt will attend board meetings at Standard during her appointment, which has already taken effect, but will “not be appointed to the Standard Life plc board during this interim period”.

The company said it would begin the “formal recruitment process” immediately for a chief financial officer, but at the same time published a full biography of Hunt citing her “extensive international experience in the financial services industry”, and changed her title from deputy group finance director.

The announcement implies that finance director and chief executive designate David Nish, 49, has effectively stepped up to shadow Sir Sandy Crombie in the top job ahead of Nish’s installation on January 1. Crombie, 60, will stay on as consultant but only until the end of March.

It also allows Standard not to create a new ‘finance director’ until it is ready, instead promising to appoint a chief financial officer. The caution perhaps reflects Standard’s experience four years ago in headhunting the former Marks & Spencer executive Alison Reed as finance director, another of the select band of high-flying female FDs, who left after only 16 months, sued the company, and won a £1.6m pay-out.

This time, and in contrast to the seven-month “global search” that preceded the eventual appointment last month of Nish, the internal front runner, Standard has said nothing about a wide-ranging search. Further, the insurer’s chairman Gerry Grimstone hinted last month that a wider executive reshuffle was unlikely.

If Hunt does step up, one of her few FTSE-100 female peers will be Jann Brown at Cairn Energy, based 100 yards away in Edinburgh’s Lothian Road.

Hunt was lured from rival insurance giant Aviva at the beginning of 2009 as deputy to Nish, potentially solving a succession problem should Nish replace Crombie. She had been chief finance officer at Norwich Union Insurance, and Standard’s description of this role yesterday was clearly aimed at establishing her credentials.

“Jackie was responsible for leading the financial management and control functions to provide effective governance, drive performance management and facilitate the development of strategy across Norwich Union General Insurance and the RAC,” Standard said.

“She was also responsible for the Aviva Group’s worldwide reinsurance programme, for management of the Group’s GI captive operation and for delivery of shared services operations, including legal and tax to Aviva’s other UK businesses.”

Hunt qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloittes in South Africa and later worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, Zurich and London, before joining Royal & Sun Alliance in 1999 and Aviva in 2003.