Figures showing more than 4,000 City financiers were paid more than €1m in 2015 come as UK prepares for Brexit talks

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

More than 4,000 City-based bank workers were paid more than €1m (£850,000) in 2015 – including one fund manager who received nearly €34m.

New data from the European Banking Authority, a pan-European regulator, showed that 80% of the EU financiers classified as high earners – those receiving more than €1m a year – were based in the UK,

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: “It’s a worrying sign that Britain’s banking sector still has the wrong priorities, and is more about servicing a culture of excess at the top rather than servicing the economy and giving fair pay to staff at the bottom of the chain.”

Across the EU, 5,124 financiers – bankers, fund managers and compliance experts – received €1m, of which 4,133 were based in the UK, the EU’s biggest financial centre.

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The number of EU bank workers paid more than €1m soared by nearly a third from 3,865 in 2014.

The EBA said that increase was partly the result of staff paid in sterling having their pay translated into euros, in line with the regulator’s requirements.

Six UK individuals earned more than €20m. The highest paid received £33.7m, but more than 99% of thatpayout was bonuses. The worker, a fund manager, was paid a salary of £199,000.

Another fund manager was paid £28m, according to the data. Traditionally it has been investment bankers, rather than asset managers, who receive the biggest bonuses.

Detail about pay deals for senior fund managers is rarely made public, although there have been some examples. Richard Woolnough, a fixed income bond specialist at Prudential’s fund management arm M&G, received £17.5m in 2013 and £15.5m in 2014.

Some 2,927 of the UK’s high earners received between €1m and €2m in salary and bonuses.

Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said: “These figures reveal a closed world where massive pay packages are considered normal, including in parts of the asset management industry. This underlines the need to introduce a real world perspective into top pay discussions, through employee representatives. Top pay is currently set by a closed circle of very highly paid people. They need to be brought back down to earth in every sense.”

The EBA’s pay disclosures follow rule changes introduced after the 2008 banking crisis, which also led to the introduction of the bonus cap in 2014. This limits bonuses to 100% of salary or 200% if shareholders approve – although waivers have been offered by local regulators to fund management firms to ignore the rules. Banks have increased salaries and introduced new allowances to get around the bonus cap.

The EBA, which is based in London but will relocate to mainland Europe after Brexit, said that 279 financiers in Germany received more than €1m, with the highest paid receiving just under €14m. In France, 178 received more than €1m, with the highest paid less than €5m.

It is not yet clear how the data for the City will be published after the UK leaves the EU. The data is provided to the EBA by the local regulators, including the Bank of England.