Reserve Bank of India approves salaries of all top bankers of the country, but it has been found that the top officers of the apex bank itself get paid less than 5% of the amount paid to chiefs of banks.

An analysis done on the pay structure of RBI's top officials and those of banks which have been given license by it to operate in India has shown that the total pay received by RBI Governor, D Subbarao is lesser than the top officials of both public as well as private sector banks.

The difference in amount is a big one which is almost 20 times more for some bank chiefs, than what is paid to the RBI governor, four deputy governors or seven executive directors.

As per RTI Act, RBI Governor D Subbarao got a gross salary of Rs 1,28,500 in the month of June 2010. Subbarao is the highest paid executive at RBI, followed by the four Deputy Governors, Shyamala Gopinath, Usha Thorat, K C Chakrabarty and Subir Gokarn, whose gross salary amounted to Rs 1,11,500 each in the same month.

In contrast, as many as 14 top executives of different private sector banks got an annual salary of more than Rs one crore in the last fiscal.