EBA Report Shows Persistent Gender Imbalance and Pay Gaps in EU Banking Leadership

EBA Report shows persistent gender imbalance and pay gaps in EU banking leadership

• Press Release
• 23 April 2026

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today the results of its benchmarking analysis on diversity practices in the management bodies of more than 850 institutions credit institutions and investment firms across the European Union (EU). As of 31 December 2024, significant gender imbalances and pay gaps persisted, particularly at senior management level, despite some progress compared with the situation in 2021. The EBA calls on institutions to consider promoting a more balanced representation of genders, and on competent authorities to continue assessing diversity and gender pay gap practices as part of their supervisory reviews.

Key findings

• Diversity policies remain unevenly implemented: around 20% of institutions have no diversity policy, and only 67% have set quantitative targets for gender representation.
• Gender imbalance persists at senior management level: nearly half of institutions have no women among their executive directors, and women account for only 12% of CEOs across the EU. While representation is higher in supervisory functions, women remain under‑represented in leadership roles.
• Male executive directors earn on average around 10% more than their female counterparts, pointing to shortcomings in the application of gender‑neutral remuneration policies.
• There is a positive correlation between gender balance and return on equity (RoE) at institutional level, reinforcing the case for stronger diversity practices. The EBA will continue to monitor and assess developments in diversity and remuneration practices in the EU, in line with its mandate. It will strive to do so simplifying data templates, adjusting data collection and publication frequencies, and improving data quality, which currently limits the ability to publish benchmarking results closer to the reference date.

Note to the editors

Gender equality is a core value of the European Union and a fundamental right enshrined in the EU Treaties.

Since 2015, the EBA has been collecting data on credit institutions’ and investment firms’ diversity policies and on the composition of management bodies, covering gender, age, geographical origin, and educational and professional background. Since 2021, the benchmarking exercise has also included gender pay gaps at management-body level.

Under Directive 2013/36/EU and the Investment Firms Directive (IFD) institutions are required to adopt diversity policies, take diversity into account when selecting members of the management body, apply gender‑neutral remuneration policies, and monitor gender pay gaps.

The benchmarking analysis is based on data from 704 credit institutions and 163 investment firms across the EU, as well as Liechtenstein and Iceland, and covers a range of diversity dimensions, including gender, age, educational and professional background, and geographical representation.

The report’s findings are presented through interactive visualisations, including:

• Diversity policies & practices [DOWLOAD DATA ]
  • Slide 1: gender distribution in top management sorted by role & gender, and age & gender
  • Slide 2: female directors in institutions’ management bodies by EU country
  • Slide 3: implementation of diversity policies by EU country
• Gender diversity & profitability [DOWLOAD DATA ]
• Gender pay-gap [DOWLOAD DATA ] For the purposes of the Report, 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 average gross hourly earnings. No adjustments are made for differences in professional experience, qualifications or roles. Since CEOs typically receive higher remuneration and are predominantly male, their inclusion increases the overall observed pay gap; this effect is primarily linked to role composition rather than gender alone.

Documents

Report on benchmarking of diversity practices in the EU banking sector (2024 data)

(1.29 MB - PDF)

Download

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