Lucrative rewards for RBA non-executive staff

The number of non-executive staff at the Reserve Bank earning more than $200,000 jumped from 115 to 140.

“Remuneration packages for Reserve Bank staff are designed to attract and engage high-calibre employees,” the report states. Picture: AFP

The number of non-executive Reserve Bank staff earning more than $200,000 a year has increased more than 20 per cent in a year, according the central bank’s latest annual report.

The number of non-executive staff with remuneration above $200,000 jumped from 115 to 140, while the number of staff classified as executives fell from 47 to 45.

“Remuneration packages for Reserve Bank staff are designed to attract and engage high-calibre employees,” the report states.

Thirty-seven executives earn­ed more than $325,000 in salary and superannuation this financial year, compared with 33 in the previous fin­ancial year. The earnings of the governor and deputy governor — the bank’s top two executives — increased by 9 per cent and 3.3 per cent to $1.02 million and $765,000, respectively.

The release of the annual report follows National Australia Bank’s decision to slash the number of bonuses available to bankers to one.

The Reserve Bank’s remuneration attracted heightened scrutiny in 2011 when the board lifted the salary of then governor Glenn Steven to above $1m without informing Wayne Swan, the federal treasurer at the time.

The Reserve Bank board is independent of government and sets its own salaries and conditions under the Reserve Bank Act.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will pay the federal government a dividend of $669 million for the 2018 financial year, almost half of what it handed over the year before. The RBA recorded a profit of $3.8 billion in the last financial year, after the depreciating Aussie dollar helped the bank rake in more cash on its foreign assets.

But according to its annual report, almost $3.2 billion of that profit has been has been put towards unrealised gains on assets.

The central bank’s latest dividend is down from $1.3bn in fiscal 2017, when it recorded an operating loss of $900m but had greater underlying earnings. Governor Philip Lowe said the bank continues to have a strong balance sheet.

with AAP