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Christine Lagarde receives about €140,000 a year as a Bank for International Settlements board member despite a European Central Bank ban on third-party payments to staff.

Some ECB employees, using internal message boards, have complained about the apparent double standard in the treatment of the president’s remuneration from the BIS, an institution for central banks created in 1930.

“Preach water, drink wine!” wrote one ECB staff member according to screenshots seen by the FT.

Lagarde is one of the 18 global top central bankers sitting on the BIS board of directors. While all of them are entitled to annual fixed pay and variable attendance fees, the BIS does not disclose payments individually.

But in a written answer to German MEP Fabio De Masi and his Swedish colleague Dick Erixon, Lagarde disclosed for the first time on Friday that she received 130,457 Swiss francs from the BIS in 2025, which is about €140,000. In 2024, she received a basic ECB salary of €466,000 plus €135,000 in fringe benefits. Her estimated total remuneration of around €741,000 makes Lagarde the best-paid EU official.

Other central banks treat BIS remuneration differently. Fed chief Jay Powell and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey do not claim their BIS pay, in the Fed’s case because US law prohibits officials from accepting money from a foreign institution.

Banque de France, which is one of the few central banks that discloses its governor’s BIS remuneration, reclaims half of the fixed pay for the institution.

ECB staff discussed a recent FT article on Lagarde’s pay in an internal web forum only accessible for employees, pointing out that the central bank’s internal rules prohibit staff from receiving third-party remuneration.

According to the ECB staff rules, employees must not accept “any payments from third parties in respect of the performance of their professional duties,” adding that if such payments are offered, they “shall be made to the ECB”.

The central bank told the FT that its president “is not a staff member” and hence “not covered by the staff rules”, adding that she is instead “subject to a dedicated code of conduct for high-level ECB officials”.

One anonymous entry, seen by the FT, argued that Lagarde received external pay “for activities that seem to be part of her professional duties as ECB president. This is not allowed by ECB rules, at least for regular staff.”

According to a second post, the central bank’s human resources department told an ECB employee who was enquiring about a joint BIS project that they were not allowed to accept additional remuneration.

“We mortals can’t take the BIS allowance,” a third post read.

The ECB told the FT that its staff “cannot accept remuneration for activities they perform exercising their ECB task”. According to a person familiar with the matter, this includes an ECB staffer who is accompanying Lagarde to BIS board meetings and cannot accept pay offered by the BIS.

The central bank told the FT that Lagarde’s case was different as the president role as a BIS board member entailed “participating in BIS governance decisions, carrying governance responsibilities and related legal risks. In view of these responsibilities, the president receives a remuneration paid by the BIS.”

The ECB said staff members involved in BIS activities “do not have comparable governance and legal responsibilities [as Lagarde] and therefore according to the staff rules cannot accept remuneration for these activities”.

People familiar with the matter told the FT that Lagarde followed the practice of her predecessors, Mario Draghi and Jean-Claude Trichet, who also claimed the BIS allowance. Draghi and Trichet declined to comment.

The central bank added that staffers can receive pay “for external activities not related to their ECB tasks and outside of the ECB, if they obtained prior written authorisation and do that during their free time”. In a “very limited” number of cases, such permissions were granted for BIS projects that covered areas other than “ECB tasks”, the institution added.

The ECB’s staff criticism reflects wider unease about the institution’s internal governance. Last summer, the bank’s staff committee accused leadership of running an “unaccountable legal fortress”.

ECB’s treatment of staff had led to “widespread complaints of favouritism . . . high burnout rates and the vulnerability of many colleagues working under temporary contracts”.

In October, the union that represents ECB staff filed a lawsuit against the institution, accusing it of “censorship” and “intimidation” in the latest escalation of a bitter feud about labour relations.

The ECB declined to comment on the court case. It told the FT at the time that it was “firmly committed to the freedom of expression and the rule of law”, offering staff “multiple channels, including an anonymous whistleblowing tool” to “ensure that any unacceptable behaviour is investigated and addressed swiftly”.

Additional reporting by Sam Fleming in London