Sutton appointed Bank of Queensland chief; Aussie dollar hits five-and-a-half year low: Midday Roundup

Jon Sutton has been appointed as chief executive of the Bank of Queensland, after acting in the role since September 2014.

Business Spectator reports Sutton will receive a base remuneration package of $1.25 million and be entitled to short and long-term incentives.

Sutton replaced former chief executive Stuart Grimshaw in September last year. Prior to joining the bank in 2012, Sutton was managing director of Bankwest and held senior positions at the Commonwealth Bank.

Bank of Queensland chairman Roger Davis said Sutton was selected to lead the bank after a comprehensive international search.

“Jon has played a key part in BOQ’s turnaround, as well as the development and implementation of our four pillar strategy,” Davis said.

“We are at a crucial point in a major transformation program and growth agenda and we are confident that strong momentum will be maintained under Jon’s leadership.”

Aussie dollar hits five-and-a-half year low

The Australian dollar has hit a five-and-a-half year low, sinking to 80.52 US cents this morning.

The drop is the dollar’s lowest since May 2010.

However, economists say the fall has more to do with the strength in the Greenback, rather than further weakness in the Australian dollar, according to reports from the ABC.

At 12.15pm, the Aussie dollar was back up to 0.81 US cents.

Local shares slow to start

Australian shares are off to a slow start this morning, despite the low Aussie dollar working in the market’s favour.

“Trading today is likely to be mixed as markets recover from the holiday break,” Tony Kwok, sales trader at CMC Markets said. “There is not much of a lead from overseas markets with the major world indices showing only marginal gains or losses.”

Kwok said the lower exchange rate may attract overseas investors looking to buy value stocks.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was up 15.3 points to 5451.2 points at 12:20PM AEST. On Friday, the Dow Jones closed up 0.06%, rising 9.92 points to 17,833.0 points.