Michael Fingleton, the 68year-old managing director of Irish Nationwide, remains one of the best best-paid, taking home 1.65m last year, according to the annual report published by the building society on Friday.

This was more than AIB paid its chief executive, Eugene Sheehy, although his 1.1m paycheck was for only eight months, from May to December 2005. Fingleton also did better than David Went, chief executive of Irish Life & Permanent, who was paid 1.3m including pension contributions last year.

The package paid to the Nationwide boss, including salary of 671,000, a 500,000 bonus and pension contribution of 375,000, is almost three times greater than that paid to the chief executive of EBS, the only other building society left in the country. It paid Ted McGovern 654,000 in salary and benefits last year, which not include the pension contributions made on behalf of the 52-year-old boss.

Fingleton has no problem justifying the pay gap. During his 30 years at the helm, he has build Nationwide into a money-making machine, leapfrogging EBS and many other commercial lenders in terms of the bottom line.

Nationwide made 176m before tax on assets of 11bn in 2005. EBS could manage only 54m on a much bigger asset base of 16.5bn, although it claims it could have made an extra 22.5m by treating its customers as harshly as the commercial banks.

Like EBS, Nationwide is a mutual, at least in theory, owned and run for the benefit of its customers. But when it comes to making money, it leaves many commercial banks in the shade. Its pre-tax profits of 176m compare with 167m for Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and 148m for Permanent TSB, the banking arm if IL&P.

The annual report reveals just how far Nationwide has strayed from its roots as a traditional building society.

Of a total loan book of 7.6bn, only 2.3bn is made up of home loans, the traditional bread and butter of building societies. The rest is commercial lending, more than half of it in the UK, where Fingleton bankrolls many of the big names in property development.

Fingleton's big payday will come some time over the next year when he cashes in his chips by selling Nationwide to a bigger financial institution, probably from overseas.

The process is already in motion with legislation allowing for a fast-track demutualisation of the building society due any day.

In the past, the sale of building societies was conducted along strictly egalitarian lines, with members getting identical windfalls irrespective of the size of their savings or mortgages. This time around, Fingleton has let it be known that he expects special treatment for Nationwide's 400 staff, and especially for management, in any carve-up.

Disclosure of his remuneration came in the same week that bankers' pay angered shareholders at AIB's annual general meeting in Cork. They were asked to rubber-stamp a 579,600 compensation payment to former finance director Gary Kennedy, on top of a 2.1m pension top-up he pocketed before leaving office.

The huge payout amounted to a platinum rather than a golden handshake, according to one shareholder.

Defending the payment, AIB chairman Dermot Gleeson said it reflected the "legal entitlements" of Kennedy's job, a reference to the to management reshuffle that following the hiring of American Steve Meadows from Citigroup to fill the new role of group director for operations and technology.

This appointment, which more or less coincided with Sheehy's appointment as chief executive, left Kennedy in a sticky position, robbing him of half of his responsibilities as group director for finance and enterprise technology.

Gleeson told the AGM he believed Kennedy's departure was amicable, although this does not entirely explain why the bank felt it necessary to contribute 150,000 to the former executive's legal and tax advice bills.

No matter how much bankers at the other financial institutions pay themselves, it will be hard for them to match the rewards available at Anglo Irish Bank.

Its 39-year-old chief executive, David Drumm, was paid 2.3m last year. John Rowan, chief executive of UK operations, got 1.6m, although he has since left the bank. Meanwhile, operations director Tom Browne and finance director Willie McAteer were paid more than 1.5m each.

Nice work if you can get it.