Fairway HomeLoans

The merger between Westpac and Australia’s fourth largest bank, St George, passed the final hurdle yesterday with the ‘yes’ vote of St George shareholders. Meanwhile, media reports say thousands of jobs may go as a result of the merge.

A Westpac spokesperson told The Australian newspaper that no target has been set for redundancies but there would be job reductions “where there is duplication in the back office and head office.”

Finsec’s sister union the FSU has said that up to 5000 jobs could be lost in total. National secretary Leon Carter says the merger is a move towards a monopoly. “This is Westpac deciding to grow its market share by taking over a competitor.”

(finsec)

In contrast with most other developed countries the Australian economy will continue to grow in 2009 according to The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Growth next year will weaken from 2.5 per cent to an expected 1.7 per cent in 2009 before picking up to 2.75 per cent the following year.

“Despite the depressed international environment, the impact of the financial crisis and the fall in the terms of trade should be relatively contained,” the OECD said in its economic outlook.

The news for employment levels is however less encouraging with a figure of 6 per cent anticipated by 2010 however inflation should drop below the 3 per cent threshold.

(mortgage business)

Great news for mortgage owners, the RBA have dropped the interest rates by 2% in the last couple of months. The current cash rate is 5.25%.