Britain Tops EU Bankers' Pay Chart With 2,700 €1m Salaries

Britain's banks have the highest number of employees earning over €1m in Europe, well ahead of other member states.

According to a new report by the European Bank Authority (EBA), 2,714 bankers earned more than €1m in the United Kingdom during 2012.

Germany came a distant second, with 212 bankers earning a seven-figure euro salary.

Third on the list was France with 177, Italy was fourth with 109 and Spain was fifth with 100.

A number of countries in the EU had no bankers at all earning over €1m in 2012.

These included Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia.

Breakdown of UK's Earners

The report said that 2,188 high earners worked in investment banking while only 62 worked in retail banking.

Meanwhile 198 worked in asset management and 266 worked in other business areas.

The 198 asset managers earned average total remuneration of €2.126m (£1.77m, $2.89m), while the investment bankers sampled had total average remuneration of €1.943m.

The final average total remuneration per individual across all categories was €1,951m.

The Poorer Bankers

The report said its salary criteria included the business area involved and the main elements of salary, bonus and long-term award and pension contributions.

Similarly, the EBA said in the report that its figures included staff paid by institutions, including subsidiaries or branches of any European Union parent institution based in another member state other than the one where the parent company is located, as well as staff in branches of third country institutions.

Recently it was reported that a rise in fixed salaries, monthly allowances, and other incentives has led to 10,000 bankers taking home €500,000 a year as firms try to counteract the European Union bonus caps and retain talent

The bumper salary rise, monthly allowances and incentives follow new legislation voted through the European Parliament and European Commission which will limit bankers' bonuses to 200% of their salary.

The law, which comes into force from January 2014 and will apply to bonuses paid in 2015, is intended to discourage irresponsible risk-taking and curb the bonus driven culture in banking following the financial crisis.

The EBA has yet to flesh out all the detail of the new rules, but the organisation said the cap would be applied to "risk-takers".