WHAT DO they all do? France’s central bank employs 15,000 staff — more than seven times the number who work at the Bank of England — despite the absence of a currency to manage or interest rates to set. Furthermore, according to the 2005 Central Bank Directory from Central Banking Publications, despite the fact that the Banque de France lost control of interest rates in 1999, staff numbers have fallen by only 3.6 per cent.

Germany’s Bundesbank has been only a little more thrifty, cutting numbers by 14 per cent to 13,600 by 2004. The European Central Bank employed a relatively modest 1,300.

Across the eurozone, 52,321 people were recorded as central bankers. Replacing 11 currencies by one ought to cut out all the duplicate posts but has so far saved 7 per cent.

Apart from Russia, whose old-era system employs a reported 82,000 staff, the euro system is the world’s most bloated. The US Federal Reserve has 22,000 staff and cut more posts between 1999 and last year than the French bank.

The Bank of England is undisputed champion of leanness, if not meanness. Britain has its own currency, its own inflation target and its own interest rates, yet the Bank managed with 1,908 staff at the last count.

Central banks in Sweden and Denmark, which have their own currencies, are slim too.

Many central banks have regulatory functions that in the UK were moved from the Bank to the Financial Services Authority. But the FSA, which covers investment, consumer protection and all financial markets, had 2,300 staff.

Central banking and financial regulation for Europe’s largest financial centre take less than a third of the employees of the Banque de France.

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