Henning Schulte-Noelle, the chairman of Allianz, the German insurance and banking group, who presided over the acquisition of Dresdner Bank and, more recently, the group's worst ever quarterly results, has resigned.

Schulte-Noelle, who is 60, will leave the Allianz management board at the end of April but will join the supervisory board. Michael Diekmann, who currently oversees insurance in North and South America and has group-wide responsibility for human resources, will replace him.