Norman Chan Tak-lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, received HK$8.4 million in pay and benefits last year.
That was more than the combined earnings of the bosses of the European Central Bank and America's Federal Reserve, Jean-Claude Trichet and Ben Bernanke.
And the HKMA, which is the closest thing Hong Kong has to a central bank, does not even have the politically sensitive job of setting interest rates because of the city's currency peg to the US dollar.
According to the HKMA's annual report, Chan received a HK$6 million salary, HK$1.5 million in performance-related pay and HK$858,000 in other benefits, including healthcare and life insurance.
ECB head Trichet earned Euro367,863 (HK$4.18 million) last year, while Bernanke earned US$199,700.
Chan's pay and benefits amounted to over a tenth of the HK$831 million the HKMA spent last year while Bernanke's pay came to 0.04 per cent of the Fed's US$425 million operating budget for last year.
When Chan took up his post in October 2009, the HKMA said his annual fixed pay would be HK$6 million. Civic Party legislator Ronnie Tong Ka-wah said he had 'no idea' why Chan was paid an additional HK$1.5 million for his work last year.