The AFR's Alice Uribe has been hitting the phones this morning to get the inside word the resignation of QBE boss John Neal - and "after five years pf patchy performance" is now in the lede:

Mr Neal began with the company in QBE's European Operations in 2003 and moved to Sydney in 2011 as CEO, global underwriting operations.

He was appointed CEO of the group in 2012 and was tasked with streamlining a vast array of businesses throughout the US, Europe and Latin America that had been cobbled together from a variety of M&A transactions undertaken during the reign of former boss Frank O'Halloran.

While QBE chair Marty Becker recognised that Mr Neal had undertaken the role during a "challenging period in the insurance industry globally" his successes have been overshadowed by uneven performance and scandal. It is understood that institutional investors were getting impatient with the ongoing underperformance.

Earlier this year, Mr Neal's pay was docked more than $550,000 in pay for a delay in telling his board about a relationship with his personal assistant.

In June, the insurer's shock earnings downgrade on the back of higher-than-expected claims in its emerging markets division revived worries about management forecasts and what other problems might emerge at the group.

On the day of the announcement, investors wiped $1.9 billion off the insurer's market value. The insurer was subsequently forced by the ASX to explain why it had not disclosed higher-than-expected claims in its emerging markets division sooner.

The warning came just a month after the QBE confirmed its 2017 guidance at its annual general meeting and Mr Neal to failed to warn of any problems in its emerging markets business.

Daniel Toohey, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the revision in the outlook for the emerging markets division was the latest in a line of downgrades and questioned why the group's total insurance book wasn't able to sustain stresses throughout its business.

"For QBE it's a sense of deja vu. Twelve months ago there was the Australia/New Zealand surprise downgrade. The other disappointing thing is that it's really 10 per cent of the book underperforming by 10 per cent," he said at the time of the downgrade.

At QBE's half year results in August the anticipated "major disappointment" in its emerging markets division saw that unit's chief executive David Fried step down, with plans announced for the division to be split in two.

The decision was driven by a spike in claims throughout the regions, including higher accident claims and claims associated with Hong Kong workers' compensation. Morningstar analyst David Ellis said that "investor patience has worn out" with the offshore issues.