Sure, he has suffered a a bit of a margin crunch since he last updated the market on June 16, after which the risk-free interest rates used to discount outstanding claims continued to fall.

O'Halloran, however, remains convinced the group's insurance margin will scramble back into the 16-18 per cent target range over the full year.

And then there's the $US400 million profit improvement program by 2013, from refinanced debt, more efficient systems and new distribution channels.

The fact remains, though, that QBE, one of the world's few global insurers, is in the midst of a stubborn downswing in the insurance cycle.

The global commercial insurance market has seen better days, with claim inflation outpacing premium growth.

QBE, furthermore, is sensitive to interest rates, not fully matching its assets and liabilities to interest rate risk.

The reason, according to Axiome Equities analyst Brett le Mesurier, is that the company sees claims inflation as a bigger issue, with rate movements likely to be an offsetting factor.

The market has been waiting a year or two for the industry dynamics to change, but so far to no avail.

For some, including le Mesurier, yesterday's announcement that the insurance margin had fallen to 15.7 per cent was no great surprise, given recent rate movements.

The real issue is whether margin slippage is an aberration or a trend, and if it's the latter, when will it start to reverse.

The short answer is that this does, indeed, look like a trend, with the QBE insurance margin falling from 17.5 per cent in the previous corresponding period to about 16.5 per cent in the second half of last year.

As for the much anticipated reversal, the insurance cycle tends to last for about three years.

We're a year or two into this one, so things will may soon start to change.

In the meantime, O'Halloran will continue to accentuate the positive. As you would expect.