The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a report regarding the benchmarking of remuneration practices across the EU and the aggregated data on the remuneration of EU institutions’ staff who received, in total, EUR one million or more in 2013.

Key points in the report include:

• the percentage of high earners who are identified staff has slightly increased over time;
• the number of high earners decreased from 3,530 in 2012 to 3,178 in 2013. This reflects a number of factors, including movements in the exchange rate between the euro and the pound sterling;
• remuneration practices within institutions were not sufficiently harmonised, in particular, the application of deferral and pay out in instruments differs significantly between Member States and between institutions; and
• overall it can be observed that the ratio of variable to fixed remuneration paid to identified staff was further reduced in 2013 to 104%. This will further change given the entry into force of the CRD IV in 2014 and the introduction of the limitation of variable remuneration to 100% of fixed remuneration (200% if approved by the shareholders), the so-called bonus cap.

The report will be updated on an annual basis and the analysis based on 2014 figures is expected to be released by the end of 2015. The forthcoming report will show the full impact on institutions of both the regulatory technical standards on identified staff as well as of the application of the “bonus cap”, as the latter applies for remuneration awarded for the performance year 2014 and onwards.

View EBA update on remuneration practices and high earners data for 2013 across the EU, 7 September 2015