One of the best kept secrets in the banking system, the salary of the governor of the National Bank of Romania, became public knowledge yesterday following publication on the NBR website of the fortune statements in their new form.
It was revealed that Mugur Isarescu received 2,977bn ROL (the equivalent of 73,448 euros or 91,218 dollars at the average exchange rate for the period) last year, giving him an average monthly income of 248 million euros (6,200 euros or 7,373 dollars).
However, this is lower than the salary made by most bank presidents, who make upwards of 10,000 euros a month.
The NBR governor made 40% less than Alan Greespan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, who makes 171,900 dollars a year, and half the salary of the President of the United States, George W. Bush, who enjoys nearly 200,000 dollars a year.
Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, has an even larger salary of 411,160 dollars a year.
The highest-paid head of a central bank is Hong Kong''s Joseph Yam, who receives 1.12 million dollars a year, 11 times Isarescu''s salary.
The National Bank of Romania pays the highest salaries of the three financial market regulatory authorities (NBR, the National Securities Commission and the Insurance Supervision Commission). The salaries collected by the nine members of NBR Board of Governors last year exceeded half a million euros.
The NBR published the fortune statements for its management team on Monday night. The statements were made at the beginning of May.
Many of the nine members of the Board of Governors made less money than Isarescu last year, however, due to having been appointed to their positions as late as last autumn.
First vice-governor Florin Georgescu earned 594 million ROL (14,655 euros), while vice-governor Eugen Dijmarescu received 570 million ROL (14,060 euros).
Having held his position for the whole of last year, vice-governor Cristian Popa made 2.7bn ROL (66,600 euros), which equals an average monthly wage of 225 million ROL (5,550 euros).
Florin Georgescu also declared the money he received from being a member of Banca Comerciala Romana''s Board of Directors last year and chairman of the Supervisory Board (1,791bn ROL or 44,187 euros).
The fortune statements also reveal the manner in which members of the board decided to save their money.
It was shown that they all remained loyal to banking deposits, though most did not say to which banks they had entrusted their money.
The most confidence in the domestic currency as a means of keeping his savings was shown by first vice-governor Florin Georgescu, whose banking deposits of 3.8bn ROL (105,000 euros) are exclusively denominated in ROL. Governor Mugur Isarescu has ROL deposits of approximately 40,000 euros, deposits in euros of 17,000 euros and deposits in dollars of 13,000 euros.
Vice-governor Cristian Popa has chosen to keep most of his savings in foreign currency. He has 780 million ROL in banking deposits (21,500 euros), while his deposits in euros and dollars amount to 21,700 euros.
Banking deposits in ROL over the last two years have generated better yields compared with those in foreign currency thanks to the higher rates of interest rates on ROL and the appreciation of the domestic currency on the forex market. vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro
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