Former RSA boss Andy Haste and Aviva's finance chief Pat Regan have emerged as frontrunners to replace Aviva boss Andrew Moss, the latest chief executive to be forced out following a shareholder revolt.

Moss – who presided over a 60% decline in the insurers's share price during his time in the top job at Aviva – will leave the insurer with a £1.75m payoff. His departure follows that of Trinity Mirror's Sly Bailey and AstraZeneca's David Brennan, who also stepped down after shareholders decided their performance was not good enough.

Haste, who is credited with turning around rival insurer RSA after its asbestos claims crisis in 2002, is a strong candidate to replace Moss at Aviva, as is Regan, who is regarded as the top internal candidate. Another possible contender is Trevor Matthews, 60, the former Friends Life boss who joined Aviva last year as its UK head.

Panmure Gordon analyst Barrie Cornes said: "The obvious popular choice would be an external appointment and it would probably be Andy Haste. But the obvious candidate doesn't always get the job." He pointed to Harry Redknapp's failure to get the England manager's post.

Haste has not taken another job since he quit RSA in August, a year after the failure of his bold stab at buying Aviva's UK general insurance business for £5bn.

In the latest example of the "shareholder spring" that has grown in strength through the current AGM season, Aviva handed its incoming chairman, John McFarlane, day-to-day control of the business until a successor for Moss is found. Aviva hinted that it would take some months, although it is under pressure to find a new chief quickly as Moss's departure leaves the company vulnerable to a takeover or breakup. McFarlane will meet major shareholders in coming days and conduct a review of the business, which is heavily exposed to the eurozone debt crisis. Some are unhappy at Aviva's failure to recover from the financial crisis as well as UK rivals Prudential and Legal & General.

Investec analyst Kevin Ryan said Moss had "tinkered" with the company's strategy, confusing investors. There have been several U-turns, although Aviva's 2010 decision to focus on 12 core markets rather than 30 has been welcomed in the City.

Regan, 46, is the only executive who remains of the existing management from recent years. Aviva's highly regarded UK head Mark Hodges left last June after 20 years to run Towergate Insurance and prepare it for a flotation. Aviva's equally respected European chief Igal Mayer was ousted last month after 23 years with the insurer, making way for Matthews, who was elevated to executive director of developed markets.

Investors had become frustrated with the tenure of Moss and he faced an acrimonious annual meeting last Thursday when 60% of shareholders failed to endorse the insurer's pay policies, including Moss's package, worth up to £5m, and a £2.2m golden hello for Matthews.

"Andrew has been unpopular with many shareholders who feel he has at times seemed out of touch with the issues that they thought were facing the group," said Oriel Securities analyst Marcus Barnard.

Despite the big drop in the share price since he took the helm in July 2007, Moss will get his £960,000 basic salary for this year; £300,000 in lieu of bonus; £209,000 under a pension plan; £45,000 in legal fees and 75% of the 2009 bonus that was deferred into shares, worth £240,000 at Tuesday's share price. The remuneration committee has prevented share schemes worth up to £2.4m from paying out.

Aviva's outgoing chairman, Lord Sharman, said Moss had approached him with the decision to leave as "he felt it was in the best interests of the company that he step aside to make way for new leadership". Moss called his chairman on Monday from the holiday he had departed for shortly after Thursday's tumultuous annual meeting. Aviva shares closed up 0.6p at 302.9p after rising 3% earlier in the day.

Moss would have faced further questions about his stewardship at an Aviva strategy day on 24 May. That investor day has been postponed.

At the annual meeting, some 10% of investors had failed to back the re-election of Moss to the board. M&G, the investment arm of Prudential which holds just under 3% of the stock, is thought to be among the investors to have abstained on Moss and Sharman.

McFarlane, who briefly sat on the board of Royal Bank of Scotland and is best known for running ANZ in Australia, said: "My first priorities are to regain the respect of our shareholders by eliminating the discount in our share price and to find internally or externally the very best leader to be our future chief executive."