By naming Liam E. McGee as its chief executive officer Tuesday, The Hartford decided to tap a leader with extensive experience in the banking industry, but minimal experience in insurance.

“I’m a little surprised to see they went outside the insurance industry for their new CEO,” says Drew Woodbury, Morningstar’s lead analyst covering The Hartford. “But he has a lot of experience in banking and that is one of their distribution channels. He also has a lot of experience in running a complex financial services institution and The Hartford certainly is one of those.” McGee, 55, was president of the Consumer and Small Business Bank for Bank of America and, according to published reports, he was once considered to be a leading contender to head Bank of America.

 Choosing a banking executive with little insurance expertise could strike some as an interesting move. After all, at a Keefe Bruyette & Woods insurance conference earlier this month in New York, Ramani Ayer, the outgoing chairman and CEO of The Hartford Financial Services, indicated that the beleaguered company would switch its emphasis to insurance from annuities. That change was intended to help the company recover and rebuild from $850 million in losses last year.

David Potter, a spokesman for The Hartford, pointed to a statement released by Michael Morris, the company’s presiding director, in which he said that McGee, a native of Ireland, was named CEO because of his “strong track record of success in leading large, complex financial services organizations.” The statement further said that McGee has “a demonstrated ability to evolve and profitability grow business in response to changing business environments and customer needs.” Potter added that McGee managed some insurance business when he was at Bank of America, where, among other positions, he served as president of its consumer and small-business division. He also worked at Wells Fargo, where he held senior positions there.

The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer has suffered a total of $11.5 billion in unrealized losses in securities in its investment portfolio, but did see its losses drop by 29% since the end of the second quarter. The company received $3.4 billion from the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program earlier this year.

Woodbury says it remains to be seen what kind of impact new leadership will have on The Hartford’s outlook. “It depends on what his specific goals are,” Woodbury says. “It could lead to an improvement in the culture. That’s definitely one possibility.”