Analysts from UBS have warned that while Australia’s big banks were among the strongest in the world, that investors would be well-advised to be wary of them.

"The Aussie banks are very good companies. They are profitable, resilient, well capitalised, well managed, shareholder focused and have a very strong industry and regulatory structure," they said.

Most students struggle to juggle study, work and play (not to mention the looming threat of student debt), however one Leeds University student has sorted out a way to kill all those birds with the same stone.

Sebastian Smith has won a competition to spend the next six months getting paid to test waterslides.

Smith will travel from his Somerset home across the world, from Turkey to Jamaica, making a splash wherever he goes.

Australia’s second largest bank (which owns the NZ Westpac) unveiled a special 10 cents-a-share dividend payout after posting first-half cash earnings of $NZD4.22 billion.

Michael Bennet, Banking correspondent for the Australian, reported that the high earnings were driven by, “cost-cutting, lower bad debts and a margin boost from holding back some of the official rate cuts from homeowners.”

Confusion at an ANZ Penrose contact centre almost led to workers at the centre missing out on their holiday pay.

The centre was closed on Easter Sunday, and at least one member received an email stipulating that all staff were meant to work and had to take an annual leave day if they wanted to be paid for the Sunday.

The ANZ Delegate consulted with the FIRST Union Member Support Centre who informed him that this was not correct. He then consulted with the ANZ human resources team and a new email was sent out to those affected telling them to ignore the earlier message.