EBA report highlights ongoing gender imbalance and pay gaps in EU banking leadership

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its benchmarking analysis on diversity practices within over 850 credit institutions and investment firms across the European Union (EU). As of December 31, 2024, significant gender imbalances and pay gaps remain, particularly at senior management levels, despite improvements since 2021.

The report highlights that approximately 20% of institutions lack diversity policies, and only 67% have set quantitative targets for gender representation. Nearly half of institutions have no women among their executive directors, and women account for only 12% of CEOs across the EU. Women are better represented in supervisory roles but remain underrepresented in leadership positions.

Male executive directors earn on average about 10% more than female counterparts, indicating shortcomings in gender-neutral remuneration policies. A positive correlation exists between gender balance and return on equity (RoE), supporting the importance of diversity practices.

The EBA calls on institutions to promote gender-balanced representation and on authorities to continue assessing diversity and pay gap practices during supervisory reviews. The EBA will monitor developments, improve data collection, and enhance data quality to publish benchmarking results more timely.

Since 2015, the EBA has collected data on diversity policies and management body composition, including gender, age, origin, and background. The 2021 benchmarking added gender pay gaps at the management level. The analysis is based on data from 704 credit institutions and 163 investment firms in the EU, Liechtenstein, and Iceland.

Interactive visualizations accompany the report, covering diversity policies, gender distribution in management, and pay gaps. The gender pay gap is defined as the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of men and women, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings, with no adjustments for experience or qualifications.