Greenspan the loser in central bankers' pay league

He is known as the Maestro, but Alan Greenspan remains the poor relation of the world's central bankers.

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, who steers the economies of America and the world to recovery and away from the perils of deflation, is paid only 15 per cent of the salary of the best paid cen tral banker on the planet, Joseph Yam of Hong Kong. Ironically Yam's colossal $1.12 million salary is paid for the relatively simple task of keeping his currency pegged to the US dollar.

These anomalies are revealed in first-ever league table of central bankers' salaries, compiled by Central Banking magazine.

Even Greenspan's minion, Bill McDonough, earns nearly double his boss's wages as chair of the New York Fed.

The worst indignity for Greenspan is the vastly better pay of the heads of Europe's national banks, who are now effectively no more than branch managers for the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank (ECB).

The heads of the Finnish, Austrian, Irish and Dutch central banks all earn between $60,000 and $270,000 more than Greenspan.

The Fed supremo shares the indignity of being worse- paid than Dutchman Nout Wellink or the outgoing ECB president Wim Duisenberg, also from the Netherlands. Duisenberg, who has nurtured the euro through its difficult formative years but earned the nickname 'Dim Wim', earns more than double Greenspan's $172,000 salary. The new Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, gets $411,160, just below Duisenberg, but 2.5 times more than Greenspan.

'We think the Europeans have all sat round the table and compared salaries, and caused a certain amount of convergence,' said Neil Courtis, who helped compile the table. He pointed out that a number of perks have not been included. Bank of Eng land staff enjoy relatively generous benefits , including use of a luxurious sports club.

Some academic economists have toyed with the idea of performance-related pay for central bankers, dependent on hitting inflation targets.

'We would not advise it - they already tend to be terribly conservative, and this would make them even more so,' says Courtis.

What the governors earn

Joseph Yam (Hong Kong) $1,120,000*

Malcolm Knight (Bank of International Settlements) $450,000

Nout Wellink (Netherlands) $440,000

Jean-Pierre Roth (Switzerland) $429,000

Wim Duisenberg (European Central Bank) $417,000*

Mervyn King (Bank of England) $411,160

John Hurley (Ireland) $315,000

Bill McDonough (New York Fed) $315,000

Toshihiko Fukui (Bank of Japan) $276,076*

Matti Vanhala (Finland) $233,000

Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve) $172,000

* Central Banking calculations Source: Central Banking