Government goes into Centeno’s pocket? Rare meeting about salary is to show who is “in charge”

The Banco de Portugal’s salary commission has not been held for over a decade: it is a “serious warning” to the bank’s current governor.

The recent controversy surrounding , director of the Bank of Portugal (BdP), led the Minister of Finance to call a meeting of the Salary Commission, something that It hasn’t happened in over 10 years.

The Government is thus intervening in the assessment of salaries applied to the BdP administration, in a meeting seen as a “serious warning” to the current governor of the bank, Mario Centeno.

The call highlights that the Government maintains the last word on the salaries of the governor, vice-governors and administrators of the BdP, explains José Gomes Ferreira in .

“It is a serious warning to the current governor Mário Centeno. As if to say, the Government is responsible for the salaries of the governor, directors and consultants at Banco de Portugal”, explains the political commentator.

The Remuneration Committee, chaired by the Minister of Finance or his representative, also includes the president of the audit board, Óscar Machado de Figueiredo, and a former governor, to be appointed by the bank’s advisory board.

The meeting comes in a context of greater scrutiny over BdP’s management and its high salaries. The main objective is to evaluate the salaries charged and, possibly, introduce cortes.

Recently, Centeno was asked for explanations about Rosalino’s salary at BdP, as he was the Government’s general secretary. In 2023, Centeno and the rest of the board earned one, with the former finance minister earning around 17,473 euros per monthmore than the 17,130 it received in 2022.

“When the Minister of Finance says that a meeting of the Remuneration Committee is requested, he is saying ‘the Government is in charge’“, says Gomes Ferreira about the upcoming meeting.