5 May 2015
An interesting factoid has emerged from the details of the appointment of a second Administrator by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) to run the affairs of the Cyprus branch of FBME Bank: the two Administrators are paid more than the combined salaries of the Governor of the CBC and the person she describes as her boss, the ECB President Mario Draghi. You can probably also include the combined salaries of the other members of the CBC Board of Directors and still have change.
The first Administrator, Dinos Christofides, takes a monthly cheque of EUR 10,000 (EUR 120,000 per year), while the second, Andrew Andronikou is paid EUR 50,000 per month (EUR 600,000) with an additional 20% for agreed expenses. Both payments are deducted from FBME deposits held by CBC with the owners and directors of FBME having no say in the matter.
The second Administrator, Andrew Andronikou took up his position last Thursday, 30 April, after nine months of inaction and often vindictive mismanagement by the first administrator, Dinos Christofides. He has been appointed to work “jointly and severally” with Christofides. In his briefing to staff on Thursday 30 April, Andronikou stated that “nothing has changed,” and “on Monday it is business as usual – unless something else happens!”
That means maximums payouts to depositors remain at EUR 200 per working day, which in turn has resulted in organisations finding their salary payments to staff are in arrears.
According to the Statistical Service of the Ministry of Finance the average monthly earnings for Cypriots in Q4 2014 (seasonally adjusted) were EUR 1,862. Dinos Christofides is paid more than five times the average monthly wage in Cyprus. (Perhaps a little less if he has finally succeeded in regularising his tax position after nine months), while Andrew Andronikou is paid 26 times more than the average Cypriot gets in his or her monthly pay cheque.
After well-publicised negotiations Chrystalla Georghadji, the Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, finally secured herself a basic monthly pay of EUR 9,500 (EUR 114,000 per year as reported was agreed on 29 November 2014).
Her boss, Mario Draghi, the Governor of the European Central Bank is paid a monthly salary of EUR 31,634 (EUR 379,608 per year as reported in the ECB Annual Report 2014).
FBME Bank did not agree to these Administrators but is forced to pay them an amount greater that the salaries of the President of the ECB, the Governor of the CBC and most of the Board of Directors combined. Chrystalla Georghadji must believe that these Administrators truly are something special to justify their remuneration.
