11 July 2012 6:45am

Financial services companies may be shedding staff and cutting costs in other areas but they are still prepared to pay well for performance.

Management consulting firm the Hay Group issued its annual Australian Salary Movement Index yesterday, which shows that total annual rewards (base salary plus superannuation and short-term incentive payments) in financial services rose 5.7 per cent in the 12 months to February 2012.

Financial services' remuneration grew ahead of that of the resources industry (up 5.5 per cent over the same period) and the broad industrial and services...