Keep knowledgeable with free updates
Merely signal as much as the European banks myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.
UniCredit’s Andrea Orcel was paid a report €16.4mn final yr, drawing stage with UBS’s Sergio Ermotti because the best-paid financial institution boss in continental Europe because the Swiss lender contends with a protracted regulatory battle over capital necessities.
Orcel acquired a 24 per cent pay rise from 2024, overtaking Santander’s Ana Botín — who earned €14.8mn final yr — for the primary time since he joined Milan-based UniCredit in 2021, in response to firm filings.
The Italian govt’s pay rise places him nearly on a par with Ermotti, whose remuneration remained flat final yr at SFr14.9mn ($18.9mn, €16.5mn) after UBS’s shares have been weighed down by Swiss authorities proposals to considerably improve its capital necessities.
The narrowing pay hole additionally underlines how Spanish and Italian lenders — considered among the many drawback kids of Europe’s banking system within the wake of the 2008 monetary disaster — have staged a turnaround lately.
Banks from the 2 southern European nations now account for 3 of the 4 largest continental European lenders by market capitalisation, with Santander probably the most priceless at €141bn.
The efficiency of European banks has been boosted throughout the board by a pointy rise in long-term rates of interest.
UniCredit and Santander reported report income final yr on the again of upper internet curiosity and price revenue, with their share costs climbing about 85 per cent and 130 per cent respectively in 2025.
Each lenders additionally pursued M&A offers, with Santander shopping for UK excessive avenue lender TSB final yr and offloading its Polish unit. In the meantime Orcel has confronted fierce political opposition to his strikes to purchase Germany’s Commerzbank and home rival Banco BPM.
Ermotti’s stagnant pay underscores the tough place through which UBS finds itself in contrast with international friends, and highlights how politically delicate remuneration within the Swiss finance sector has turn out to be since its takeover of former rival Credit score Suisse three years in the past.
Orcel’s pay bundle for 2025, which was greater than double his 2022 complete, included €11.8mn in bonuses, which have been all paid in shares and deferred for eight years. His most remuneration for 2026 will stay unchanged at €16.4mn, firm filings present.
Orcel continues to be locked in a authorized tussle with Santander after a Spanish court docket awarded him €43.5mn in compensation in 2023 for Santander’s aborted 2018 supply to make him its chief govt. Santander is interesting in opposition to the ruling to Spain’s Supreme Court docket, which is ongoing.
Barclays’ CS Venkatakrishnan was paid greater than each Orcel and Ermotti final yr, receiving a report £15mn (€17.4mn) pay bundle.
In contrast to ECB-regulated banks, UK and Swiss lenders will not be restricted by a cap on banker bonuses, with EU guidelines mandating that bonuses can’t be greater than twice the scale of fastened pay.
European financial institution bosses are nonetheless paid considerably lower than their US counterparts, the place high executives additionally acquired greater payouts after a sector-wide share value rally.
JPMorgan Chase handed chief govt Jamie Dimon a report $43mn in 2025. David Solomon at Goldman Sachs earned $47mn, whereas Citigroup’s Jane Fraser acquired $42mn.
