Westpac's Clare paid less than Frazis

Westpac NZ boss Peter Clare receives annual pay of just under NZ$4 mln as group continues freeze on both fixed remuneration and incentive targets

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Westpac NZ boss Peter Clare receives annual pay of just under NZ$4 mln as group continues freeze on both fixed remuneration and incentive targets

14th Nov 12, 10:21am by Gareth Vaughan

Westpac New Zealand CEO Peter Clare, who succeeded George Frazis in April, received total annual remuneration of A$2.97 million (about NZ$3.78 million), Australian parent Westpac Banking Corporation's annual report discloses.

Frazis, who returned to Australia to head up Westpac's St George Bank, was the highest paid of the big four New Zealand bank CEOs getting about NZ$4.6 million last year and about NZ$5.73 million in 2010. In May last year Frazis told interest.co.nz his pay could be hard to explain, especially compared with the salary made by his house painting immigrant father.

Clare, who was chief operating officer of Westpac's Australian financial services business before shifting to New Zealand, saw his annual pay rise about A$290,000 in the year to September from the previous year. His package includes fixed remuneration, short-term cash incentives, non-monetary benefits including relocation costs, superannuation benefits, long service leave, shares and options. Frazis' annual pay was down to A$3.27 million from A$3.54 million.

Westpac's annual report notes both fixed remuneration and incentive targets will be frozen again in 2013, as they were this year, with remuneration not being increased for group CEO Gail Kelly, senior executives or the majority of the general managers across the group.

"We have made this decision acknowledging the continued challenges of delivering sustainable performance in a low growth environment across our industry. We are confident that the existing 'at risk' incentive arrangements allow us to recognise and reward high performance across our business," Westpac says.

Kelly's annual remuneration totaled A$9.59 million, down from A$9.86 million the previous year.

Westpac NZ posted record annual net profit after tax of NZ$707 million, up 22% year-on-year. The Westpac group reported a 5% rise in annual cash earnings to A$6.598 billion, which was largely as expected, although net profit after tax fell 15% to A$5.970 billion, which the bank mainly attributed to this year having no tax benefit from the 2008 St George acquisition.

The bigger Westpac NZ profit came after its parent transferred more than NZ$6 billion worth of assets and over NZ$5 billion of liabilities to Westpac NZ, the New Zealand institutional business, in October last year to bring the bank in line with Reserve Bank of New Zealand rules.

The annual report from ASB's parent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, doesn't disclose ASB CEO Barbara Chapman's annual pay, and the ANZ Banking Group and BNZ's parent National Australia Bank are yet to release their annual reports.

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2 Comments

by Stephen Hulme | 14th Nov 12, 12:56pm 1352851013

Prominent hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has this say about such nonsense:

...certain common cause-effect linkages drive the typical cycle of a nation's growth, power and influence.

...countries typically evolve through five stages of the cycle.

4) In the fourth stage countries become poorer and still think of themselves as rich.

This is the leveraging up phase – i.e., debts rise relative to incomes until they can’t any more. The psychological shift behind this leveraging up occurs because the people who lived through the first two stages have died off or become irrelevant and those whose behavior matters most are used to living well and not worrying about the pain of not having enough money. Because the people in these countries earn and spend a lot, they become expensive, and because they are expensive they experience slower real income growth rates. Since they are reluctant to constrain their spending in line with their reduced income growth rate, they lower their savings rates, increase their debts and cut corners. Because their spending continues to be strong, they continue to appear rich, even though their balance sheets deteriorate. The reduced level of efficient investments in infrastructure, capital goods and R&D slow their productivity gains. Their cities and infrastructures become older and less efficient than those in the two earlier stages. Their balance of payments positions deteriorate, reflecting their reduced competitiveness. They increasingly rely on their reputations rather than on their competitiveness to fund their deficits. They typically spend a lot of money on the military at this stage, sometimes very large amounts because of wars, in order to protect their global interests. Often, though not always, at the advanced stages of this phase, countries run “twin deficits” – i.e., both balance of payments and government deficits. Read Article

by Bobbob | 15th Nov 12, 1:20pm 1352938838

4 million just not enough, huh? you would think when the deposits in your bank account weekly/monthly with that many zeroes you just wouldn't quibble over a previous exec getting more/less. Reminded me of Theresa Gattung moaning that she recieved x million less than Paul Reynolds. What's a million between friends???