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NEWS: 2,000 EU bankers earning €1M – up 40pc, with Germany, France, Italy and Spain leading the way

ALMOST 2,000 bankers are earning more than €1M per annum across the EU, it was revealed today.

The number of senior bankers earning more than €1M increased by 41.5%, from 1,383 in 2020 to 1,957 in 2021.

The figures were released today by the European Banking Authority (EBA) which said the “increase is linked to the overall good performance of institutions, in particular in the area of investment banking and trading and sales, continuing relocations of staff from the UK to the EU and a general increase in salaries.”

This is the highest value for the EU27/EEA since the EBA started the data collection in 2010.

The weighted average ratio of variable to fixed remuneration for all high earners increased from 86.4% in 2020 to 100.6% in 2021.

“As variable remuneration is linked to the performance of the institution, business line and staff, the good financial performance of the institutions drove the
increase of some bonuses,” the EBA said.

Overall 70% of the increase in terms of number of all high earners in the EU stems from Italy, France and Spain.

In Italy, the increase of high earners from 187 in 2020 to 351 in 2021 (+88%) represents 29% of the total increase of the number of high earners in 2021 in all Member States.

The number of high earners in France increased from 228 in 2020 to 371 in 2021 (+63%) and constitutes 25% of the total increase in 2021.

In Spain, the number of high earners increased from 128 in 2020 to 221 in 2021
(+73%) and contributes to 16% of total increase of the numbers of high earners.

A significant number of high earners can be observed in only a few Member States – the largest population of high earners in the EU being Germany (589) which represents 30% of the total number of high earners in 2021. France (371) has
the second largest number of high earners (19%) and followed by Italy (351) high earners or 18%.

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