Daily Dispatches: NAB has the fattest cats

National Australia Bank executives rank as some of the nation's highest-paid bank bosses, despite delivering years of disappointing returns to investors, according to a review of the governance of Australia's retail lenders. Commonwealth Bank joins NAB as having the best-paid executives but its shareholders have tended to get more bang for their buck. The findings, by brokerage Citigroup, are likely to reignite tensions over executive pay as global regulators, led by Britain's, promote new standards on bonuses for bankers as part of efforts to prevent a recurrence of the global finance crisis. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Merrill Lynch hiring raid has progressed with the investment bank now looking further a field to boost its mergers and acquisitions team. The bank has today signed Leon Pasternak, a senior partner from top law firm Freehills to become vice chairman and managing director of M&A - one of the most senior positions within the bank. (The Australian)

Economists expect the unemployment rate to remained unchanged but see a strong chance of it dipping below five per cent by the end of the year. Official data expected out today is likely to show employment increased by 30,000 in March,with the jobless rate set to match February's result of 5.3 per cent. (Sky News)