Welteke Won't Keep Full Salary

Ernst Welteke, the former president of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, will not be drawing his full salary over the next three years, Bundesbank officials confirmed on Monday. Welteke, whose contract was due to run until 2007, will receive a pension "clearly lower" than his salary of €350,000 ($423,000) per year, said Udo Fleischer, a Bundesbank spokesman. German business daily Financial Times Deutschland had earlier reported that Welteke would receive his full salary because he resigned voluntarily. Welteke quit after the media reported he had accepted hospitality perks from the Dresdner Bank AG, a commercial bank regulated by the Bundesbank. The bank put up Welteke and his family in Berlin's luxurious Adlon hotel during celebrations marking the introduction of the euro on January 1, 2002 and picked up the bill of €7,600. It later emerged that Welteke had also attended a Formula 1 race in Monaco in spring 2003 at the invitation of German automaker BMW, which also has its own bank.