super pay, Goldman Sachs is leading the international ranking. The US investment bank paid its 121 top bankers in London an average of £3m (€3,85m today) last year, well above the industry average. The data was reported by Reuters which examined, and published, a ranking based on the amounts paid in 2013 by 13 of the world's largest banks, British or foreign, operating in London. For comparison, Bank of America ranks second paying £1,6m to 110 bankers, Morgan Stanley £1,54m to 116 bankers, JP Morgan £1,52m to 209 bankers, Crédit Suisse 1,51 .165 million to 5,5 senior managers. The variable remuneration travels in multiples of two, three, up to XNUMX times compared to the fixed one.
An astonishing picture emerges on a high-voltage matter such as that of the remuneration of top managers, after the controversy over the superbonus considered responsible for an overly favorable attitude to risk on the part of the top managers concerned, thus contributing to widening the financial crisis. Criticisms that have raged in England but almost everywhere in Europe (and in Italy, also in light of the major bank crashes) so much so that many shareholders have raised the request to reduce super-salaries and increase the profitability of banks interested.
Returning to Goldman Sachs, the data collected by Reuters demonstrates that it paid the senior or risk exposed positions a total sum of $193,6 million in 2013, bestowing 2,1 million shares in bonuses, which is equivalent to 377 million dollars considering the flotation of the American bank at the end of that year. The Rsu (restricted stock unit, in practice stock options), Reuters points out, are paid over the course of the three-year period but may not be fully released and may also be recalled at a later time. However, the salary data is outrageous and confirms that Goldman leads the salary rankings by far on 13 leading banks tested in Great Britain, USA, Switzerland and Japan with employees in England. The obligation to disclose data concerns English institutions or institutions operating in England but not European banks.
In this basket of super-banks, 2.600 employees are paid more than £3,4bn collectively, with an average of £1,3m each (€1,6m at current prices). That's nearly 50 times the average wage in Britain. The figures drawn on by Reuters are the most comprehensive so far made public on the salaries of British bankers. Many banks had already released them at the beginning of 2014 but Goldman, Citigroup and Credit Suisse they unveiled only last week, one step away from the end of the year. Goldman Sachs e Bank of America they had to make the greatest effort to align with the new European rules and cap the bonuses at 200% of the basic fixed salary. In fact, both banks paid their senior managers five times more in variable remuneration than in fixed one.
