Is NAMA actually more generous than it seems?

NAMA is set to release its 2011 annual report this week and you’ll get an annual glimpse into the headcount and pay within the government’s asset management agency.

We’ve mentioned on previous occasions that NAMA can be generous with pay and bonuses, but there may be more than this than meets the eye. As a blog post by NAMA Wine Lake explains, it attempts to show that the average salary is less than €100k, but the reality is more generous than this.

“What NAMA doesn’t like to talk about is the full cost of employment including pension costs – and because NAMA has a finite lifetime, we understand that the pension costs are significant. The belief on here is the average full cost of a NAMA employee, and by average is meant “mean” rather than mode or median, is about €175,000 and considerably more if bonuses are paid, which we understand they haven’t been for 2011 but they might be in 2012 or future years.”

Then there’s the salaries for developers, which (as we pointed to earlier) come in at between €70-200k. Again, NAMA Wine Lake says the real cost is decidedly more:

“What NAMA doesn’t want to tell you is how much in overheads it is paying, nor how much developers can earn in profit shares if their assets sell for a price in excess of an agreed target.”