high earners

EBA Publishes Report on Benchmarking of Remuneration Practices at the European Union Level and Data on High Earners in 2014

On March 30, the European Banking Authority (“EBA”) published aggregated data on high earners earning €1 million or more per financial year.

The EBA has analyzed the data provided to it for the year 2014 and compared it to the 2013 data. The main results of its analysis are:

  • the number of high earners increased significantly between 2013 and 2014 (+22 per cent);
  • there is now a higher overlap of the population of high earners with that of staff identified as having a material impact on the institution’s risk profile. This percentage increased significantly after the regulatory technical standards on identified staff entered into force in 2014;
  • the supervisory framework for remuneration is still not sufficiently harmonized with the application of deferral and payout in instruments differing significantly among Member States and among institutions;
  • following the introduction of a limitation on the ratio between the variable and the fixed remuneration of 100 per cent (or 200 per cent with shareholders’ approval), the ratio for all identified staff decreased to 65.5 per cent in 2014 from 104 per cent in 2013; and
  • the increase in fixed remuneration for identified staff is not material compared to the overall administrative costs.

The report forms part of the work that the EBA does with the European Commission to review the effectiveness of remuneration provisions. Report.