Salary of Largest Bank CEO: $234,700

Jiang Jianqing is head of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank by market capitalization. His 2008 earned compensation totaled $234,700.

On the other hand, there's the pay of CEOs in the US that needed billions in bailout funds from the US government to stay afloat after taking reckless and over-leveraged bets. The largest US bank CEOs earned in 2008: JP Morgan - $19.6 million, Bank of America - $9.9 million, Wells Fargo - $13.7 million and Citigroup - $10.8 million.

This is the ultimate in heads I win, tails you lose. Long have we justified higher CEO in America pay because of their outperformance compared with banking institutions around the world. Yet, to operate in a capitalist system, executives cannot be able to realize such compensation when their bets go sour.

Source: Reuters.com