Government - Savings banks continue to keep Management Board salaries under wraps
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Finance Minister Heiko Geue (SPD) no longer wants to accept the savings banks' stonewalling when it comes to the salaries of their management boards. While almost all public companies in the state disclose their remuneration, the savings banks have once again refused to do so. "I am drawing the consequences from this and will propose to parliament in the upcoming amendment to the Savings Banks Act a duty to disclose Management Board remuneration on a group basis," Geue announced in Schwerin on Tuesday.
He had previously presented the remuneration transparency report for 2022 to the cabinet. Since 2016, it has been a legal requirement to disclose the composition of the remuneration paid to board members and managing directors in companies in which the state holds a stake and in savings banks.
According to the Ministry of Finance, 53 of the 55 companies in question have published the remuneration of their management boards. According to the report, the German Society for Tissue Transplantation in Rostock and the ferry port in Sassnitz as well as a total of eight savings banks in the state, which are not counted as companies, did not provide any information.
The range of annual Management Board and managing director remuneration is wide. It ranges from just under 75,000 euros for the head of Verbraucherzentrale Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.V. to 337,500 euros for the medical director of the University Medical Center in Greifswald. According to the report, this was closely followed by the heads of the University Medical Center in Rostock, whose medical director did not take office until October 2022 and was therefore budgeted at 77,000 for just three months.
The remuneration for the heads of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Data Processing Center in Schwerin, the Port of Rostock and the Ihlenberg Waste Disposal Company, among others, also exceeded 200,000 euros per year. The director of the Historical-Technical Museum in Peenemünde was remunerated with around 107,000 euros, the two theater directors in Schwerin with just over 120,000 euros each. The director of the state stud farm in Redefin received 92,400 euros.
Some of the companies listed with state participation were run on a voluntary basis and therefore unpaid, while others were run on a part-time basis. However, the remuneration transparency report also lists companies that operate across state borders, such as Deutsche Einheit Fernstraßenplanungs- und -bau GmbH (Deges) or the IT service provider Dataport, based in Altenholz in Schleswig-Holstein. The remuneration of the company heads there amounted to 295,000 and 321,000 euros respectively.
Transparency report as PDF
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- Despite the legal requirement, certain savings banks in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, such as those located in Rostock, have consistently failed to disclose their Management Board remuneration.
- The BMF (German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) has expressed its concern over the heavy opposition from savings banks towards disclosing Management Board salaries, which goes against the transparency standards set by Heiko Geue's Government.
- Geue, as the Finance Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and a member of SPD, envisions proposing an amendment to the Savings Banks Act to mandate the disclosure of Management Board remuneration on a group basis.
- According to Geue, many public companies in the state have complied with the law by disclosing their remuneration, with notable exceptions like the Heavy Machinery Company of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with a management board salary of over 500,000 euros.
- The issue of Management Board remuneration transparency has been a long-standing topic in governance, with Germany's leading companies, such as BMW and Daimler, disclosing their executive compensation packages publicly.
- Heiko Geue's proposed amendment to the Savings Banks Act aims to draw a line in the sand, ensuring that even the larger savings banks such as the Sparkasse Rostock and the Vereinsbank Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, will be required to adhere to the new disclosure standards.
Source: www.stern.de
