MONEY»
Salaries of bank CEOs too high: Govt
KATHMANDU, AUG 20 -
Finance Minister Surendra Pandey and top government officials stood firm on their stance that the salaries and perks being enjoyed by the chief executive officers (CEOs) of banks and financial institutions (BFI) must be justifiable in terms of the salary gap with other bank employees.
They said that their “unjustifiable” salaries and perks should not be a source of discontent within BFIs and the society at large. CEOs participating in an interaction on the issue organised by the Revenue Administration Training Centre mostly kept silent while insisting that the boards of the BFIs should be free to decide the salary, the position they took while responding to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).
Bank directors, however, supported NRB’s move to maintain justifiable salaries for the top brass. Following NRB’s inclusion in the monetary policy of a provision to ensure that CEO salaries were “affordable to the country’s financial system, digestible and transparent”, the issue has been a hot topic in the financial sector creating bad blood between the central bank and private sector bankers. Minister Pandey asked the CEOs to ponder whether their salaries and benefits were justified compared to other staff of BFIs and the society at large.
He added that there was a tendency among some promoter CEOs to keep their relatives’ hold over BFIs and enjoy unparalleled benefits at the cost of minority shareholders. The minister said that he had also heard about CEOs sharing their benefits with the board of directors.
Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Yubaraj Khatiwada said that NRB’s move had not been taken to undermine the board of directors but to make it responsible.
He added that the gap in salaries and benefits may bring discontent between the top management and lower level employees as well as management and shareholders.
Finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal said that the issue of unlimited salaries and benefits has been raised in the banking sector now which should be extended to other sectors as well while settling the issue.
President of the Nepal Bankers Association Sashin Joshi said that the issue of CEO salary had been brought into the limelight without understanding the reality.
Chairman of Janata Bank Guru Neupane said CEOs were taking more benefits while shareholders were being cheated. “Such a situation has arisen due to a scarcity of competent human resources able to become CEOs.”
Chairman of Nabil Bank Satyandrapyara Shrestha said that regulation of the salary structure should be fixed just to build moral pressure on CEOs. “It is better to keep the fixed salary low and performance benefits high,” he added.
Posted on: 2010-08-21 09:09
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