Reserve Bank pays big dividend

The Reserve Bank is preparing to tighten its belt despite paying a $510 million dividend to the Government, the second largest in its history.

The central bank released its annual report for the year to June 30 on Monday.

It reveals the bank is facing a ‘‘tight budgetary framework’’ over the next five years, with annual funding increases of just 1.3 per cent. The central bank said it had reviewed its staffing levels and shed 15 staff earlier in the year to prepare itself.

Personnel costs of $35m in the 2014-15 year accounted for half of the central bank’s total expenses. That included the pay of 247 fulltime equivalent staff, 150 of whom were earning six-figure salaries.

There was one employee in the top pay bracket of $640,000 to $649,999, understood to be governor Graeme Wheeler.

His earnings were slightly higher than his predecessor, Alan Bollard, and considerably more generous than Prime Minister John Key’s $452,500 pay packet.

According to the report, Wheeler’s personal assets include a KiwiSaver account, a family home in Wellington, two Coromandel Peninsular sections and a holiday home. All four were bought before he joined the Reserve Bank.

The central bank said there was ‘‘merit’’ in disclosing the governor’s finances in the interests of promoting transparency.

The bank’s surplus of $624m was the second largest in its 80-year history. The huge increase from $56m last year was largely the result of foreign exchange gains caused by a weaker New Zealand dollar.