In Germany, the millionaire density among bankers is particularly high: around 30 percent of all top earners in the EU work here.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt The number of income millionaires at banks in the European Union has increased significantly in 2021. The number of employees who received one million euros and more increased by 41.5 percent to 1957 people compared to the previous year, according to a salary report by the EU banking supervisory authority Eba. This is the highest value for the 27 EU member states and the countries of the European Economic Area since the Eba began collecting data in 2010.
Bank supervisors cite several reasons for this development. “The increase in the number of high earners is related to the good development of the institutes, especially in the area of investment banking and securities trading, as well as to the further relocation of staff after Brexit from Great Britain to the EU and also to the general increase in salaries.” it in the report.
Brexit plays an important role because banks were no longer allowed to carry out certain transactions with EU customers from London after Great Britain left the European Union. Therefore, they had to set up independent locations in the remaining EU countries and also employ staff there. This is particularly true for investment bankers and securities dealers, who worked primarily in London prior to Brexit.
Around 70 percent of the new income millionaires work for banks in Italy, France and Spain. This is related to the increase in the return on equity of institutions from these countries, analyzes the Eba. In absolute figures, Germany has the most income millionaires – 589 people or 30 percent – followed by France with 19 percent and Italy with 18 percent.
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In its justification, Eba points out that these EU countries are the most populous. The fact that Deutsche Bank, which traditionally has a high concentration of millionaires due to the large role played by investment banking, is also likely to play a further role in Germany. In addition, some major US banks such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have relocated their EU headquarters to Germany.
If you look at the remuneration of individual business areas, investment bankers and securities dealers earned by far the seven-figure salaries most often. They represent 749 of the 1957 millionaires. The second largest group, with 599 people, are managers in high management positions.
In addition to information from the 27 EU countries, the Eba data also contain data from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, which belong to the European Economic Area.
More: Number of income millionaires among bankers is increasing – almost 500 high-paid in Germany