A top Indian executive working for a multinational bank in Nepal is the kingdom's highest-paid banker, according to media reports.
Sujit Mundul, CEO and director of Standard Chartered Bank in Nepal, drew the fattest pay cheque with salary, allowances and bonuses adding to an impressive NRS 12.45 million (Rs.7.7 million) in 2005-06, the Kathmandu Post reported.
Mundul, who a magazine earlier named as Nepal's best CEO, far outpaces the second-highest paid banker, Prithvi B Pande, chairman of Nepal Investment Bank Ltd (NIBL), the report said.
Pande's pay packet for the same period amounted to NRS 9.5 million. The third-highest paid banker is Surendra Bhandari, CEO of a new entrant, Kumari Bank, drawing NRS 8.47 million.
The report said there has been a "sea change" in bankers' salaries since 1994 when the general manager of Nepal Bank Ltd, one of the oldest banks in the country, used to draw about NRS 90,000.
However, while the top honchos get all the cream, the benefits don't necessarily trickle down to the lower rungs, it said.
Standard Chartered rates third in the pay disparity index after Kumari Bank and NIBL. Mundul's income is 7.4 per cent of total staff expenses, the report said.