European Banking Authority benchmarking report finds women are 12% of EU bank CEOs and male executive directors earn about 10% more

The European Banking Authority published a benchmarking report on diversity practices and gender pay gaps in the management bodies of 867 credit institutions and investment firms across the European Union, Liechtenstein and Iceland, based on data as of 31 December 2024. The analysis finds that gender representation and gender-neutral remuneration remain unevenly implemented, with persistent imbalances in senior management despite some progress since 2021. Around 18.80% of institutions reported having no diversity policy and 67.24% had set quantitative targets for gender representation. Women remained markedly under-represented in executive leadership, with 45.87% of institutions reporting no female executive directors and women accounting for 12.37% of 792 CEOs, while representation was higher in supervisory functions. On pay, the report points to continuing gaps, with male executive directors receiving 9.82% higher median remuneration than female peers when excluding CEOs, alongside a positive correlation between gender-balanced executive boards and profitability, with a weighted average return on equity of 12.79% for credit institutions with executive directors of both genders versus 7.36% for those with executive directors of only one gender. The EBA will continue monitoring diversity and remuneration practices and plans to simplify data templates, adjust data-collection and publication frequencies, and improve data quality to enable benchmarking results to be published closer to the reference date.