Number of central bankers on the rise

The number of central bankers worldwide increased in 2010 as monetary authorities stepped to the fore of recovery efforts, data published Wednesday revealed.

The figures, taken from the Central Bank Directory 2011, showed the total number of central bankers was estimated at 340,432, a 1.5% increase compared to 2009.

The move comes as central banks have responded to the crisis with extraordinary policy measures and taking on new roles.

The trend was not limited to a geographical or political regions and was reported in large and small central banks alike. Staff numbers increased 2.1% at the Bank of Canada saw a 2.1%; 4.8% at the Bank of England; 11.2% at the Maldives Monetary Authority; 12.6% at the Central Bank of Kuwait; and 5.2% at the South African Reserve Bank.

Some central banks could get bigger over the next year. For example, the number of staff at the Bank of England is likely to increase as the central bank subsumes the Financial Services Authority, the UK's regulator, a policy instated by the country's coalition government.

The increase bucked the trend established in recent years, coming against a 2.4% fall in staff numbers between 2008 and 2009, and a 39% drop over the past ten years.

In the United States, the Fed's Washington-based Board of Governors posted an 11.4% increase in staffing as of the end of 2009, the most recent date for which figures are available, even as personnel numbers at the regional Fed banks dwindled, dropping 6.1%. Likewise, the ECB grew in size, with its headcount rising 1.8% from the end of 2008 to the end of 2009. Meanwhile, staffing at the national central banks within the Eurosystem continued to fall, extending the trend set over the past decade. The Bank of Finland, Bundesbank and National Bank of Belgium have all shrunk since 2005, with staff levels dropping 15.3%, 14.4% and 10.8% respectively.

Some exceptions
The Bank of Greece has seen a 17.4% reduction in staff numbers over between 2005 and 2009. In December last year, amidst a climate of public sector job cuts, George Provopoulos, the governor of the central bank, and Eleni Dendrinou Louri and Ioannis Papadakis, his two deputies, said they would take pay cuts as a symbolic gesture, given the role of the bloated state sector in the country's substantial budget deficit.

Other individual central banks that have seen big changes in staffing levels include the National Bank of Hungary, where the number of employees has plummeted 37.6% between 2005 and 2010. The central bank has come under attack from the Hungarian government elected in April and has been affected by a Ft2m ($9,478) a month public sector wage cap that resulted in the salary of András Simor, the governor, cut by around 75%. The move has drawn the fire of both the ECB and the European Commission, but Budapest has refused to budge to date.