The Bank of Japan was rocked by a possible new scandal yesterday when a television station reported that the central bank overpaid staff by some 50 billion yen ($387 million) by overstating the number of its employees.

The Tokyo Broadcasting System quoted unnamed central bank officials as saying the overpayments started more than a decade ago and the practice was still going on.

Central Bank governor, Mr Masaru Hayami, who was appointed only last month after a scandal involving officials leaking confidential information, said he was not aware of the over-staffing scandal.

"No, I don't know. I have never heard of such a thing," Mr Hayami told TBS.

A BOJ spokesman denied the report, saying the central bank reported personnel numbers to the Ministry of Finance every fiscal year and had never inflated the figure.

TBS said the BOJ started the practice in the mid-1980s and the overpayments reached several billion yen a year at their peak.

The central bank began to "restrain" the practice in mid-1992 when Japan's economy started to falter, it said.

TBS said the central bank had reported to the Finance Ministry that it had about 6,000 staff, some 10 per cent more than the actual number. In this way it received government approval to set aside extra money for staff payrolls.

The report comes only three days after the bank disciplined 98 employees for accepting lavish entertainment from financial firms.

The punishments, which followed an internal probe, followed the arrest two months ago of a senior bank official accused of giving out confidential information in exchange for wining and dining, mainly by private banks.

Mr Hayami's predecessor Mr Yasuo Matsushita resigned last month to take responsibility for the scandal.

The Ministry of Finance has also been caught up in similar scandals. Earlier this year, two ministry officials were arrested on suspicion of receiving bribes from big Japanese banks in exchange for confidential information.