Steve Johnston, Suncorp's new chief executive, favours keeping the banking and insurance arms of the business together.Suncorp named Johnston as its permanent chief executive on Monday morning, after he had worked for three months in the job on an interim basis. Michael Cameron, the previous CEO, did not work for Suncorp long and now the Brisbane-based insurer has landed on an executive trained via a short stint early on as an adviser to the Queensland premier, in the inner workings of government.In 1998 Johnston moved into public affairs and then investor relations, with Telstra his staging post where he handled NBN and so much more grief as GM corporate & government relations from 2004. He then decided to try his hand at public affairs, banking style, back in his home town, a job he held for five years until the end of 2011. A limited track record in the field was no obstacle to his being thrown the job of deputy chief financial officer, and then, in December 2013, being moved up to CFO. In 2017 Johnston also was given the additional responsibility of Legal and Company Secretariat."He was responsible for Suncorp's financial reporting and management, taxation, investor relations and corporate affairs" Suncorp said.Suncorp Bank may be for sale or it may not be; the latter, the banker side of this new insurance CEO suggested yesterday. "The benefits [of the bancassurance model] are the scale that the business has, and the ability for us to invest in digital capability, particularly in our bank, that wouldn't be available to us if it stood alone," Johnston told The Australian Financial Review. In some ways Suncorp's bank is humming along, though its mortgage market share has taken a turn for the worse in the new look APRA monthly banking statistics.  (With a 2.6 per cent slice of the home loans scene Suncorp maintains, just a market share lead over  Bendigo and a comfortable 100 bps advantage over BOQ. In deposits Suncorp is in fine fettle (again in contrast to local rival Bank of Queensland), while in business lending Johnston's bank has a habit of mostly holding its market share.Amid its mostly reliable franchises in insurance and banking, Johnston risks being sidelined as COO more than CEO of Suncorp. There may be a certain, even a swift fix-it-up in the digital domain of the Suncorp group businesses that have been such a hodge podge this last year or two. Is the Suncorp board still tempted to sell Suncorp Bank?. There will be new intrigues, there have been offers and sure there remains interest.But then AMP aren't selling AMP Bank either.