The average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) for a full time Australian worker increased by 0.9 per cent during the quarter ending August, representing an annual seasonally adjusted increase of 5.2 per cent.

Private sector AWOTE increased by 0.9 per cent to stand at $1178.80 and represents a seasonally adjusted annual increase of 4.9 per cent. Whilst the public sector AWOTE increased by 1 per cent to $1277.60 for the same period, representing a seasonally adjusted annual increase of 5.8 per cent.

Despite Australians making more money, they also happen to be working more for the extra cash.

The average full time Australian worker does 70 minutes of unpaid overtime daily, according to research from the Australian institute. The means that the average Australian worker puts in 33 eight hours days in unpaid overtime during the year, or six and a half working weeks annually in unpaid overtime.

“While Australians might have a reputation for taking ’sickies’ and ’smokos’, the evidence suggests otherwise,” the institutes executive director Richard Denniss said when releasing the research on Wednesday.

Over the last ten years, Australians have developed a reputation for working the longest hours in the developed world, despite other developed countries seeking to lower the number of working hours.

“The amount of unpaid overtime worked in Australia is the equivalent of 1.16 million full-time jobs. In an economy where unemployment is rising, overwork is an obvious area for government to address” Dr Denniss said.

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According to new independent research commissioned by mortgage broker Loan Market Group, first time mortgage borrowers display almost no customer loyalty, especially towards the Big Four banking groups.

“They are looking for the best deal they can get, so it doesn’t matter to them whether they have had a long-standing relationship with a particular bank or any lending institution through a savings account or other dealings.” Loan Market Group chief operating officer Dean Rushton said releasing the findings on Wednesday.

Even after securing financing with a specific lender, the study found that borrowers see themselves refinancing their mortgage several times over the lifespan of the home loan, if they felt they could obtain better terms.

The study also found that first time mortgage borrowers who now face tougher lending criteria, were actively researching the best deals on offer.

“The lending landscape provides them with a lot of options and they want to make sure they are in control and are not being talked down to,” Mr. Rushton said.

Mortgage borrowers who trade up to higher quality properties and investors, tend to display more loyalty to their bankers, but were still prepared to flip between lenders if it made financial sense.

“The lending market is more sophisticated and access to the internet has enabled buyers to be better informed about the different products and services available,” Mr. Rushton said.

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The total value of spending by Australians on charge and credit cards during September was $19.246 billion, up from $18.869 billion in the previous month.

The value of credit card repayments increased by 3.5 per cent during the month, to $19.602 billion, according to a monthly bulletin released by the Reserve Bank of Australia on Thursday.

Total balances outstanding on charge and credit cards increased by 2.4 per cent to $45.139 billion, whilst account balances that accrued interest declined marginally to $32.435 billion for the month.

Charge and credit card purchases by value rose 1.9 per cent for the month, whilst the value of cash advances on charge and credit cards also rose by 0.7 per cent, with the actual number of advances increasing by 4.1 per cent.

By value, credit and charge card purchases increased 1.9 per cent to $18.290 billion in September, from $17.951 billion in August.

There were 14.351 million purchases using charge and credit cards in September, whilst the number of charge and credit card accounts remained flat for the month.Total credit card repayments fell by 0.3 per cent over the year.

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AMP also said it would increase the value of superannuation contributions made by the company on behalf of its staff.

AMP says it intends to increase superannuation contributions from the current mandatory 9 per cent, to 12 per cent over the next half decade.

Speaking at a business conference, Mr. Dunn said that AMP thought that there was reason for Australia to start looking at a broader increase for all Australian workers.

“The Chinese save on average about 30 times more than the average Australian. It is Australia’s mandatory superannuation that has created the savings pool that we have today. While we have a very strong national retirement system there is still a question whether Australians are saving enough for a comfortable retirement.” Mr. Dunn said.

Mr. Dunn says he believes that approximately 4 million Australians do not have enough retirement savings, which is estimated to be approximately 65 per cent of pre tax annual income, during working life to fund ones retirement.

The super fund industry, which has approximately $2 trillion under management, is expected to be revamped after Jeremy Cooper, who heads up the government’s review, suggested that there was a need for funds to consolidate.

Mr. Dunn says he believes that the upward march of both AXA APH’s and AMP’s share price since the proposed deal was announced was market vindication of his plans for an $11.7 billion merger, and signified that the market believes a merger of the two firms was in the best interest of both company’s shareholders.

“We’ve been pleased with the way the AMP share price has moved up since the proposal was made,” Mr Dunn said.

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The acquisition comes as NAB and other Australian lenders seek a foothold and expand into the fast growing Asian asset management industry.

Earlier in the year, rival ANZ acquired selected Asian assets of troubled British lender Royal Bank of Scotland, for $592 million. The Australian quoted an unnamed source as saying the NAB acquisition will cost the lender approximately $5 million.

NAB’s Hong Kong based general manager; Andrew Macintosh says the acquisition was a way for the lender to retain customers.

Mr. Macintosh says that NAB has seen a 60 per cent increase in its deposits and assets under management as investors flee to higher rated financial institutions.

NAB is one of eight AA-rated banks in the world.

Mr. Macintosh said that recently, many investors had shifted their assets from deposits into property investments in countries such as Australia, UK and Hong Kong, adding that the lender expects that investors would continue to look for more investment options going forward, including equities and managed funds.

The ability to provide asset management will give NAB clients additional options, with the lender seeking further acquisition opportunities in Asia Mr. Macintosh said.

The acquisition represents NAB’s re-entry into Asian asset management, after the lender sold its asset management business in Hong Kong and Indonesia in 2006 to AXA Asia Pacific Holdings for $575 million.

At the time NAB said it wanted to divest non core businesses in order to concentrate on building businesses in private, wholesale and small- and medium-size business banking services.

Calibre was started in 2002, and advises clients on investment strategies. It will become a unit of NAB and maintain the Calibre name.

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Mike Smith CEO of ANZ was the best paid Australian banking chief in 2008/09, earning $10.9 million, whilst Westpac chief Gail Kelly, was the highest earning female Australian chief executive, taking home $10.6 million.

CBA chief, Ralph Norris took home $9.21 million, whilst NAB’s Cameron Clyne earned $5.2 million.

NAB and ANZ both released the details of their chief executive compensation plans in their annual reports, which were made public on Tuesday.

John Stewart, predecessor of NAB’s Cameron Clyne, earned $8.513 million in total compensation during 2008/09.

Mr. Clyne assumed the top job at NAB on January 1st 2009.

Despite taking a cut in salary, Mike Smith maintained his position as Australia’s best paid bank chief executive.

ANZ, which released its annual report on Monday showed Mr. Smiths total compensation for the 12 months ending September 30th valued at $10.935 million, which was down sharply from the previous year, when he was paid $12.963 million.

The Big Four banking groups are expected to charge their customers $4.5 billion in fees during 2009, despite having axed a number of charges this year, according to consumer watchdog InfoChoice.

“The irony of recent downsizing in exception fees is that customers doing the right thing receive no reward, as in most cases they would have avoided these fees anyway. Australians face a large and complex web of bank fees, with more than double the e fee categories than the UK. What’s worse, many bank customers do not even know that these charges exist, or are unaware that they apply to them.” InfoChoice CEO Shaun Cornelius said.

Australian banks charged their customers $4.8 billion in fees during 2008, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

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Macquarie has proposed a compensation structure which would increase the proportion of its staff salaries received as equity rather than cash, so that the interest of its managers was more closely aligned with that of its shareholders.

Macquarie also scrapped its initial compensation proposal, which was to pay its top ten managers, including chief executive Nicholas Moore, using a larger number of stock options.

The investment banking group now proposes that it pay its top managers with shares that are issued after performance hurdles have been met, rather than options, after the government introduced new legislation regarding the taxation of employee stock options.

The compensation plan requires the approval of company shareholders, which Macquarie will seek at its annual general meeting, which will be held in Sydney next month.

“If the approvals sought by Macquarie are not obtained, Macquarie will need to consider other alternatives. This will likely result in higher cash payments to executives and reduced alignment with shareholders in at least the short-term. There could also be increased staff uncertainty regarding future remuneration arrangements, which may impact Macquarie’s ability to recruit and retain staff at a key time in the post economic downturn recovery.” The company said in a statement.

Macquarie had wanted to reform its compensation structure earlier in the year. But the company shelved its plans amid uncertainty over the taxation treatment of options, after the government introduced new regulations during the budget.

David Clarke, Macquarie chairman, said that performance based compensation, using company stock as currency, rather than the issuing of cash bonuses, gave more incentive to managers to create shareholder value.

“Macquarie’s approach to remuneration has been to align the interest of shareholders and staff over the short and long term. It has also been key in attracting and retaining quality staff. More specifically, Macquarie’s remuneration approach encourages staff to focus on earnings growth and return on equity over the medium and longer term while appropriately managing risk.” Mr. Clarke said.

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A new survey by Westpac shows that approximately 35 per cent of Australian households say they intend to spend less this year, and plan to restrain their spending despite growing signs that the economy is rebounding.

The average planned spending on Christmas presents by Australian families this year is $317, and many say they will skip luxury gifts, choosing value for money gifts instead, Matthew Hassan, senior economist with Westpac says.

Mr. Hassan said planned Christmas spending was a “surprisingly cautious response” in light of the fact that overall consumer confidence had declined just 2.5 per cent as a result of interest rate hikes.

“The implications of this are that people will not be looking to be extravagant, they will be looking for bargains, and value for money,” he said.

Mr. Hassan said caution defined the mood across the whole nation and in particular Western Australia.

Over 41 per cent of Western Australian households, which bore the brunt of the financial crisis, say they plan to spend less on Christmas presents this year.

Mr. Hassan said that caution on the part of consumers may also be as a result of the reduction in government subsidies.

“Some of the planned reduction may reflect the boost to last year’s Christmas spending from the government’s $8.7 billion in fiscal payments. This helped drive a 4 percent jump in retail sales December 2008 over and above the normal seasonal rise.” Mr. Hassan said.

Total spending over the holiday season by Australians is expected to top $2.5 billion, according to the November Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment survey.

14 per cent of households surveyed say they intend to spend more this year, whilst the vast majority, or 40 per cent say they will spend around $500, or the same as they did last year.

Mr. Hassan also said that caution on the part of the Australian consumer did not match overall consumer sentiment, and may ultimately give way to a splurge on spending as the Christmas season intensifies.

“Some of this is likely due to the fiscal boost to spending this time last year, but there may also be a regular bias towards restraint heading into Christmas that eases as the season gets under way,” he said.

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Gary Tilkin, the chief executive of online foreign exchange broker GFT, says a new class of investors will arise from the aftermath of the financial crisis, individuals who feel that can deliver better returns than professional fund managers, some of whom were paid for returning double digit losses last year.

“We are going to promote it as a speculative investment where there is a chance for significant loss and a chance for significant gain and the more you study, the more you educate yourself and the better tools you use, the better your chances of getting into the significant profit category.” Mr. Tilkin said in an interview with The Australian.

Currency trading has been in existence in its present form since most governments abandoned the Bretton Woods agreement of fixed exchange rates during the early 70’s. However over the last decade, currency trading has taken off amongst retail investors.

Brokerage firms such as GFT have the ability to offer their brokerage clients spreads on currencies that are as tight as the spread that the world’s biggest banks trade at.

GFT has seen an increase in foreign exchange volumes of 78 per cent, between the second quarter of last year, to the second quarter of this year.

“Volatility is really what traders want or should want because it is opportunities If there isn’t volatility the markets just go sideways, and sideways without much up and down movement is not really an opportunity. It does cut both ways of course – extreme, volatile markets can be higher-risk but the other side is higher potential reward.” Mr. Tilkin said.

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The bid was immediately rejected by AXA APH, and also includes a $7.7 billion component for AXA APH’s Asian operations, that parent AXA SA wishes to acquire.

Mr. Allert said in a letter to AXA APH shareholders, that the bid has been reviewed by an independent committee and was unanimously dismissed.

“Following the review, the independent board committee formally advised AMP and AXA SA that the proposal had been rejected because it was inadequate and was not in the best interests of AXA APH’s minority shareholders,” Mr. Allert said.

Mr. Allert said that company shareholders owned an “outstanding high growth asset,”, and that the bid ignored several key issues including AXA APH’s influence in Asia and its strategic position in the market.

AMP and AXA SA, in their response to the letter, both said their bid, valued at $5.24 per share, was based on the targets closing price before the acquisition attempt was announced.

“Based on AMP’s closing share price today of $6.35, AXA APH shareholders should be aware that AMP’s implied offer price is $5.68 per share,” the companies said in a joint statement.

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