Millionaire bankers grow. Second the EBA report on "high earners" of credit the number of Italian bankers who, all inclusive (fixed and variable salaries, performance bonuses and social security contributions) brought home more than one million euros in a year has reached 241 units, with an increase of 17 per cent , the highest in the EU, compared to 206 in the previous year, 2018. The report of the European authorities, in fact, refers to 2019, before the explosion of the Covid-19 and the exit of Great Britain. The picture probably changed in 2020, in the face of the crisis and the constraints placed on the distribution of profits to shareholders and, probably, bonuses to senior management. As another research suggests, this time carried out by the High Pay research centre, relating to the British market which shows a drop (-17 per cent) in the overall remuneration of British top managers who, however, even in the worst year, earned average more than 3 million, i.e. as many as 86 employees.
It should be noted that British law requires companies with more than 250 employees to declare the difference between the general manager's salary and the average salary of their subordinates, a useful figure for shareholders called to express their views on the requests of top management who, in general, have demonstrated restraint in the face of the sufferings of the pandemic. But don't worry: it is not a sin to foresee that, once the constraints on dividends to be paid to shareholders have been lifted, both destined to restart the season of golden salaries in a big way. Not only in the Bel Paese.
The average salary of Italian bankers is aligned with that of its French and German colleagues (on average 1,7-1,8 million), but lower than that of the British, just over 2 million in the year of the exodus (however modest, less than a hundred units) from the City of London to Paris and Frankfurt . A small but pugnacious army of the lucky ones led by stars (see Sergio Ermotti, already the spearhead of Ubs, rather than Andrea Orcel who landed at Unicredit with a salary of 7,5 million) which, between 2010 and 2019, expanded with the recruitment of new 1.500 gold men who brought the total to nearly 5 units. Or, most likely, to much higher values, given the exceptional season of the markets which has allowed the ranks of private and investment bankers to swell. It should also be noted that already in 2019 the variable component was equal to 129% of the fixed portion, a figure destined to rise in the face of the shower of bonds from which bankers have achieved in the year of the SPACs.
