Despite recession and salary fund adjustments, ten banks paid more than 1,300 euros per employee in December.
The employees of the foreign bank branches are among the highest-paid bankers in Romania, with net average incomes higher than the banking system average, which stood at 3,760 RON (895 euros) per employee in December 2009.
Anglo-Romanian Bank, the branch of the London subsidiary of BCR group is the definite leader of the ranking, with 2,785 euros per employee; it specialises in corporate banking services and has only 100 employees, which allowed it to pay high salaries because it stayed profitable. The local branch of Spanish La Caixa group, which operates with only 7 people and has a low business volume, paid almost 2,500 euros as average salary last year, mainly as a result of the expat income of the bank's boss.
The second criterion that allowed banks paying above average salaries to stand out is the focus on corporate business, which turns out to be more stable when the portfolio includes major foreign and local companies. This is why RBS came out third in December, which 2,250 euros in average net salary; in this case treasury-related expertise generated significant earnings.
The same two criteria are what put the local branches of Bank of Cyprus, Citibank and ING into the top ten. State-owned Eximbank, which only works with companies, came out fifth, with about 1,900 euros per employee.
The market leader, BCR, paid 1,300 euros in net amount on the average, ranking 10th, as it kept the highest number of employees, over 8,700, despite restructuring over the last three years. In all, 14 banks paid salaries above the market average in December.
Despite recession and salary fund adjustments, ten banks paid more than 1,300 euros per employee in December.
The employees of the foreign bank branches are among the hi
