EBA publishes its final guidelines on the remuneration and gender pay gap benchmarking exercise under the Capital Requirements Directive and the Investment Firms Directive

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its final Guidelines on the remuneration benchmarking exercise under the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD), which were originally published in 2012 and updated in 2014. The update was necessary to take into account additional requirements introduced by CRD V regarding the application of derogations and the benchmarking of the gender pay gap. The EBA also added guidance to harmonise the benchmarking of approvals granted by shareholders to use higher ratios than 100% between the variable and fixed remuneration. Separate Guidelines on the remuneration and gender pay gap benchmarking exercise are provided for investment firms under the Investment Firms Directive (IFD).

Both the Guidelines for credit institutions and the new Guidelines for investment firms integrate the changes made to the remuneration and disclosure requirements under the CRD and the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and the new remuneration framework for investment firms under the IFD and the Investment Firms Regulation (IFR). The approach taken in the Guidelines for investment firms is consistent with the corresponding Guidelines for banks.

The templates for the data collection have been revised, taking also into account the European Commission’s Implementing Regulation on disclosures. Additional information is collected on the application of the derogations to the application of the requirements to pay out parts of the variable remuneration in instruments and under deferral arrangements.

In accordance with the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value and measures to ensure equal opportunities, the benchmarking of the gender pay gap will allow competent authorities to monitor the implementation of such measures and their development at different levels of pay. The Guidelines aim at ensuring that the benchmarking of the gender pay gap covers a representative sample of institutions and investment firms. Specific templates for the benchmarking of the gender pay gap have been introduced.

Legal basis and next steps

The EBA has developed these Guidelines in accordance with Article 75(1) of Directive (EU) 2013/36 and Article 34(2) of Directive (EU) 2019/2034 that provide specific mandates to the EBA to issue Guidelines for the benchmarking of remuneration trends and practices. Both Guidelines apply from 31 December 2022. The EBA Guidelines on the data collection exercise regarding high earners (EBA/GL/2014/07) from 16 July 2014 are repealed with effect from 31 December 2022.

The benchmarking data for the financial year ending in 2022, excluding gender pay gap data, should be submitted by institutions and investment firms to competent authorities by 31 August 2023, and by competent authorities to the EBA by 31 October 2023. The first benchmarking exercise regarding the gender pay pap should concern the financial year 2023.