Business
Christine
Lagarde’s pay is 50% higher than disclosed by ECB
Europe’s
top central banker earns almost four times more than Fed chair Jay Powell, FT
analysis shows
Olaf
Storbeck
Fri Jan
02 2026 - 09:14
European
Central Bank president Christine Lagarde’s full pay is more than 50 per cent
higher than her disclosed salary, according to a Financial Times analysis.
The head
of Europe’s monetary authority earned a total of about €726,000 in 2024,
according to the FT’s calculations, some 56 per cent higher than the “basic”
salary of €466,000 disclosed by the ECB in its annual report.
This
means Ms Lagarde earns nearly four times more than the chair of the US Federal
Reserve, Jay Powell, whose salary is set by federal US law and is currently
capped at $203,000 (€172,720).
While Ms
Lagarde’s full pay is modest compared to the chief executives of large EU
companies, the analysis exposes how limited pay disclosure remains at the ECB.
The
central bank is not subject to the same strict rules as listed companies in the
bloc, which dictate they must give a “full and reliable picture of the
remuneration” of each of their directors.
Fabio De
Masi, MEP and chair of Germany’s populist-left party BSW, said it was
“scandalous” that Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing “provides the
public with more detailed information about his pay than Madame Lagarde does”.
Sewing earned €9.8 million in 2024.
Mr De
Masi urged the ECB to adopt a similar standard to the European pay disclosure
laws for listed companies. “The president of the ECB and highest-paid EU
official should represent the gold standard of accountability,” he said.
Ms
Lagarde’s basic salary alone makes her the best paid official in the EU.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s annual basic pay is 21 per
cent lower.
On top of
her basic salary, Ms Lagarde receives an estimated €135,000 in fringe benefits
for housing and other matters, according to the FT’s analysis. The ECB’s annual
report does not offer individual disclosure of executive board members’ fringe
benefits.
Ms
Lagarde also earns an estimated €125,000 for her position as one of the 18
members of the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements —
known as the “bank for central banks”. The ECB annual report does not reference
Lagarde’s BIS salary. The BIS itself only discloses aggregate pay for all its
board members.
Mr Powell
was not paid for his role on the BIS board due to US law that bans officials
from receiving a salary from non-US entities, the Fed told the FT.
Due to a
lack of detailed and consolidated data, the FT’s calculations are based on the
annual reports of both the ECB and BIS, as well as a technical document
spelling out the “terms and conditions” of top ECB officials’ pay. The estimate
does not include the ECB’s contributions to Ms Lagarde’s pension and the cost
of her health plan and insurances due to a lack of available data.
The FT
shared the methodology, assumptions and results of its calculations in detail
with the ECB. It declined to comment on the analysis, but said in a statement
that the president’s salary was set by a remuneration committee and its
governing council “at the start of the ECB”, which was founded in 1998. “The
only change to salary since then, for all presidents, has been the annual
salary adjustment that applies to all ECB staff,” it said.
The
central bank said its disclosure “is in line with many other international
public institutions”, adding that it had “increased the level of transparency
over time”.
The BIS
declined to comment.
Academic
research stresses that the personal financial independence of central bankers
is a crucial part of the wider autonomy required to successfully fight
inflation.
A 2004
IMF survey on central bank governance concluded that a senior central banker
should be paid at levels comparable to the private sector, and protected from
pay cuts during their tenure “to avoid undue influence”.
The level
of Ms Lagarde’s total pay is “what I would have expected”, said Guido
Ferrarini, emeritus professor of law at Genoa University in Italy and one of
Europe’s leading remuneration experts, pointing to the “level of responsibility
at institutions like the ECB and the need to attract talent”.
But he
added that the ECB’s executive pay disclosure was of “rather poor quality” and
“there are many components that must be better disclosed”. He stressed that the
far more detailed disclosure by listed companies “is the right reference”
point.
Due to
additional one-off payments and potential transition payments for the two years
after her term, which will depend on her next role, Ms Lagarde can expect a
total payout of up to €6.5 million for her eight years as ECB president,
equalling about €810,000 for each year.
From
2030, she can expect an annual pension of about €178,000 from the ECB, the FT
analysis found. - Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
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