With admirable regularity, the financial news outlet «Bloomberg» revisits the salary of the SNB Chairman: «SNB's Jordan Is Still The Million Dollar Central Banker», it wrote in 2024 (article, paywalled). And now, in March, when the SNB published its 2025 annual report: «SNB President Martin Schlegel's Salary Is Now $1.2 Million» (article, also paywalled).

finews reported the bare figures back in March: the three members of the Governing Board — Chairman Martin Schlegel, Vice Chairman Antoine Martin, and Petra Tschudin — each received an identical base salary of 986'200 francs in 2025, plus 30'500 francs in «miscellaneous» remuneration (representation allowance, General Abonnement travel card, etc.).

Well Over 1 Million per Governing Board Member

Individually varying employer contributions to the pension fund and OASI push total remuneration well above 1 million francs: for Schlegel and Tschudin, this amounts to 1'295'000 francs each, and for Martin to 1'334'500 francs.

These salaries stand out not only in the context of Swiss public administration — in 2025, a Federal Councillor earned 477'688 francs, plus an expense allowance of 30'000 francs — but also in an international peer comparison of monetarily independent central banks of major currency areas:

In a cross-country context, it is worth noting that Mark Carney, as former Governor of the Bank of England, earned total compensation of 874'000 pounds — a similar amount to his Swiss counterparts. His package comprised 480'000 pounds in salary, 250'000 pounds as a housing allowance, and 144'000 pounds as a cash allowance in lieu of a pension.

Bailey and Carney Forwent Pay Increases

For his successor, Andrew Bailey, the housing allowance disappeared entirely, and the pension allowance was lower (around 99'000 pounds), so the package fell by roughly a third at the March 2020 handover. What's more, Bailey's salary has remained unchanged since his appointment — he declined increases, just as his predecessor did. A contrast to the SNB, where Governing Board compensation rose by 1.5 percent in 2025.

Why do the salaries of the Governing Board members stand out so starkly? We asked the SNB.

«Benchmarking Against Comparable Positions»

The SNB declines to comment on the compensation paid by other central banks. It states: «The compensation of the SNB's Governing Board is benchmarked annually against comparable positions domestically and internationally, and corresponds to a market-appropriate salary.» Elsewhere, the central bank specifies that it draws on «the level of compensation customary at other companies of similar size and complexity in the financial sector, and at large federally owned enterprises».

Which positions exactly make up this «benchmark», however, the SNB is unwilling to reveal. What is certain: at no federally owned enterprise — Swiss Post, SBB, Finma, Compenswiss, Skyguide — does the top executive earn as much as an SNB Governing Board member, let alone the other members of executive management.

Martin Schlegel: 78'898 Francs From the BIS

There is uncertainty on another point too: the SNB's 2025 annual report shows that, in addition to his SNB compensation, Martin Schlegel received 78'898 francs for serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel. The SNB won't say to what extent this amount is paid out to him personally: «External mandates are only assumed in direct connection with the exercise of the SNB mandate. A corresponding set of regulations governs any related compensation.»

Both the Fed Chairman and the Governor of the Bank of England forgo such fees. ECB chief Christine Lagarde, however, recently found herself embroiled in controversy over the 140'000 euros from her BIS board mandate: «Christine Lagarde's pay is 50% higher than disclosed by ECB», the Financial Times admonished (article, paywalled), prompting critical questions in parliament. (In fairness, after tax, Lagarde is probably not far behind her Swiss counterparts — like all EU officials, she is only marginally liable for income tax.)

Could It Be Had More Cheaply?

The SNB further states: «Given the considerable scope of the decisions involved, the highest demands on professional expertise and personal competencies, and the requirement of unrestricted availability, the compensation of the SNB's Governing Board is intended to offer a balanced system of incentives and compensation. This ensures that highly qualified specialists and executives are willing to take on the role and to act in Switzerland's long-term interest.»

At first glance, that sounds plausible, even sympathetic. On the other hand, the question does arise whether the same result couldn't be had more cheaply. The SNB's recent top brass — with the controversial exception of Philipp Hildebrand — have overwhelmingly been either homegrown (Thomas Jordan, Martin Schlegel, and Petra Tschudin) or have come from an international official context (Andréa Maechler and Antoine Martin).

No Competitive Labor Market

It's hardly accurate to speak of a labor market for the SNB Governing Board that operates in competition with private-sector financial firms. As a Financial Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Antoine Martin earned a fraction of his current salary.

To be sure, the Governing Board's mandate comes with genuine challenges: an 800-billion-franc balance sheet, currency interventions, interest rate decisions, an operation with over 1'000 people... But on the other hand, the SNB invests its portfolio close to the index, and interest rate decisions these days have something inherently mechanical about them.

The Governing Board's compensation is also a talking point inside the SNB, finews has learned: since the handover from Thomas Jordan to Martin Schlegel, a noticeable restraint on personnel costs is said to have taken hold in the lower ranks. In other words: while Governing Board salaries keep rising — slowly, perhaps, but surely — the same is far from true everywhere else.

Pay Restraint at the Base — And at the Top?

Confronted with this finding, the SNB writes: «The SNB generally places importance on budgetary discipline.» The central bank does not answer the question of what the personnel cost budget and staffing plan will look like in coming years: «In accordance with the Organisation Regulations, the Bank Council approves the SNB's annual budget, which also includes personnel costs. The 1'025 employees (as of the end of 2025, see Annual Report 2025, p. 154) form the basis for fulfilling the National Bank's mandate.»

Our take: the salaries of the SNB's three Governing Board members, credited monthly to their private accounts in newly created money, sit oddly with the rest of the picture. The SNB invokes a supposed benchmark but is unwilling to disclose it on request. It also wraps its future staffing plans in eloquent central-banker silence. And the question of how much of his BIS top-up Martin Schlegel keeps for himself likewise goes unanswered, with reference to a non-public set of regulations.

So we'll gingerly ask: wouldn't it be welcome if the institution that sits, by statutory monopoly, at the very source of money showed a bit more Swiss restraint on its top salaries?