Europe’s top-paid bankers were earning between €9m-€13m two years ago, before the sector was battered by a wave of job cuts, according to research from the European Banking Authority.
There were 2,017 individuals working for European Union banks earning over €1m in 2022, a 3% increase on the year before, the EBA data shows.
But a select handful of bankers across the bloc were on even more lucrative pay packets.
An unidentified banker in Spain was the highest-earner of the well-heeled bunch, taking home a total package worth €13.1m. The individual, who is at management level, was awarded a €7.9m bonus for the year.
The second best-paid banker in 2022, a retail banking professional based in Italy, earned €12.9m, followed by a managing director in Germany that saw their total pay hit €11m.
Individual bankers in Austria and France were also among the biggest high-rollers, earning €9.5m and €8.3m over the period respectively.
The EBA data provides a glimpse at some of the eye-watering pay packets awarded to Europe’s top talent before the sector suffered a slowdown.
The effects of the banking crisis, which resulted in Credit Suisse being takeover by Swiss rival UBS, are still being felt, with firms implementing drastic cost-cutting measures and making swathes of redundancies.
The EBA research also highlighted the enormous gender pay gap between men and women in banking.
Fewer than one in 10 of European bankers earning over €1m in 2022 were women, according to the data.
Investment banks in particular have grappled with boosting female talent in their upper ranks. Demanding hours and inflexible working arrangements have contributed to a dearth of female dealmakers, making it tougher for firms to tackle their gender pay gap problem.
HSBC, Rothschild and JPMorgan had the biggest gender pay gaps in 2023 out of 66 City firms analysed by Financial News.
