The EBA publishes the report on the application of gender-neutral remuneration policies

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published the report on the application of gender-neutral remuneration policies by institutions and investment firms. The report is based on the information collected from institutions, investment firms and competent authorities.

The report shows that the industry faces no major hurdles in adopting and implementing gender-neutral remuneration policies, but that some entities still have not yet adopted remuneration policies that explicitly contain measures that ensure that remuneration is awarded gender neutrally and that this aspect is monitored over time.

While the review focusses on the principle of equal pay, it also looked at the gender pay gap and the monitoring of indicators in the area of equal opportunities and equal pay. Despite some progress made by the industry, it has been observed that a gender pay-gap persists and that monitoring and transparency on those topics could be further improved. The persistence of a gender pay gap indicates that further work is needed to ensure ‘equal opportunities’ and that there are biases that require further attention.

The EBA emphasises the importance of the consistent implementation of gender-neutral remuneration policies across all financial institutions.

Legal basis and next steps

The EBA issued Guidelines on gender-neutral remuneration policies for institutions and investment firms on 31 December 2021 and 30 April 2022 respectively.

Article 74(3) of Directive 2013/36/EU and Article 26(4) of Directive (EU) 2019/2034 provide mandates to the EBA to issue a report within 2 years of the date of publication of the Guidelines based on the information collected by the competent authorities on the application of gender-neutral remuneration policies by institutions and investment firms.

The EBA submits the report in parallel to its publication to the European Commission and stands ready to provide further input of the work of the Commission in this area and will take into account this report when updating its Guidelines on sound and gender-neutral remuneration policies.