QBE Insurance’s outgoing finance chief will stay on for another 12 months after his successor decided to retire.

Chief financial officer Neil Drabsch was to retire in February 2014, and be replaced by Steven Burns, the head of QBE’s European businesses.

But Mr Burns has decided to retire from full-time executive duties for personal reasons. He has taken a short sabbatical and will return to QBE to work part-time as a non-executive director in 2014.

As a result, Mr Drabsch has agreed to remain CFO until February 2015.

A global search for his successor has begun, QBE said.