EBA press release: The EBA published today a report on the remuneration of EU bank staff who received one million Euro or more in total in 2012. Figures show that the number of high earners was limited in most Member States and quite significant in some others. The report is part of the EBA's work on bank staff remuneration policies aimed at ensuring prudent and sustainable risk taking in the EU banking sector.

In 2012, the highest values were reported for the United Kingdom (2,714 high earners), Germany (212), France (177), Italy (109) and Spain (100). The figures include staff paid by institutions, including subsidiaries or branches of any EU-parent institution based in another Member State other than the one where the parent company is located, as well as staff in branches of third country institutions.

The report also provides a preliminary analysis of remuneration structures across the EU. Most high earners were found to belong to categories that include functions with responsibilities throughout the whole institution, from the executive board, to risk management, internal audit, information technology, communication, auditing, corporate finance, legal and human resources.

The data in the report will feed into the overall work of the EBA on remuneration in the EU banking sector. As required by the EU Capital Requirements Directive (CRD), this aims at ensuring that institutions' remuneration policies not only allow for sound and effective management, but also provide an incentive for prudent long-term risk taking in the EU banking sector.

The previous version of the EBA report covering data for 2010 and 2011 was published in July this year.

Background
Directive 2010/76/EC (CRD III) requires national competent authorities to collect information on the number of individuals per institution in pay brackets of at least EUR 1 million, including the business area involved and the main elements of the salary, bonus, long-term award and pension contribution. This information has to be sent to the European Banking Authority (EBA), who shall disclose it on an aggregate home Member State basis in a common reporting format. To facilitate the data collection, the EBA published on 27 July 2012 ‘Guidelines on the data collection exercise regarding high earners'.

See the report here