The board of QBE, one of the top ASX100 companies, has set a new standard on executive accountability in the workplace by stripping its chief executive John Neal of more than half a million dollars for not telling the board he was in a relationship with his executive assistant.

The incident, revealed in the companies' annual report released on Monday, overshadowed the insurer's strong results, which saw full-year net profit rise 5 per cent to $US844 million ($1.1 billion), return on equity of 8.1 per cent and the final dividend up 10 per cent to 33¢ a share.