More British bankers earn 1 million euros than in rest of EU - study

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - More bankers in Britain earned 1 million euros (860.7 thousand pounds) in 2011 than in the rest of the European Union combined, and would easily bust a planned cap on bonuses, the bloc's banking regulator said on Monday.

Publishing figures on bank pay for the first time, the European Banking Authority (EBA) said 2,436 bankers based in the UK pocketed 1 million euros or more in 2011.

Of that total, 1,809 worked in investment banking, 85 in retail banking, 182 in asset management and 360 in other business areas, the EBA said in a report which is part of data-gathering efforts as it draws up rules to help it apply the bonus cap.

The cap will apply to awards for performance in 2014 and onwards.

Britain had opposed the cap, which will limit bonuses to no more than fixed salary, but was outvoted by EU countries who believe it will help stop excessive risk-taking intended to win large awards, as in the run-up to the financial crisis.

The EBA - which has proposed a basic 500,000 euro salary threshold, above which a bonus can be no higher than fixed pay, or twice fixed pay if there is shareholder approval - said just 170 bankers based in Germany earned more than 1 million euros.

It found 162 similarly well rewarded in France, 125 in Spain, 96 in Italy and 36 in the Netherlands.

The UK figures include high earners from domestic players such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Plc, as well as from units of banks based elsewhere in the EU, such as Deutsche Bank AG, and from other international lenders such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JP Morgan Chase & Co.

The EBA's data on the ratio of fixed pay to bonuses showed the vast majority of high earners in 2011 would have bust the cap by between two and four times, with London's investment bankers at the top end of the scale.

Banks are changing how they pay staff to ease the impact of the cap, such as by bumping up fixed pay to bring down the ratio.

(Editing by David Holmes)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-british-bankers-earn-1-million-euros-rest-130621553.html

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