Bankers' salaries

with the average bank president's salary rising to zł.210,000 per month, while the salary of an average employee stood at zł.6,000.

The highest paid CEO, for the second year in a row, was Sławomir Lachowski, former president of BRE Bank, who received zł.5.2 million last year. BPH president Józef Wancer received just zł.11,000 less.

The lowest remuneration was collected by the president of state-owned PKO BP, Rafał Juszczak (who joined the firm in June 2007), and amounted to zł.15,000 gross each month.

"The banks' results last year were very favorable, but the growth in remuneration among CEOs stems most of all from the desire to retain them," Błażej Krężołek, a consultant at Hay Group, told Rzeczpospolita.