More than 100 Spanish bankers earn over €1 million a year

More than 100 Spanish bankers are paid more than one million euros a year, according to figures for 2010 and 2011 released Monday by the European Banking Authority.

Specifically, 125 officials in the sector received an average remuneration of 2.4 million euros in 2011, the highest average among the bankers of all European countries paid over one million euros a year. The average in 2010 was 2.25 million euros. In 2011, they jointly received 106.9 million euros in fixed salaries and 198 million in bonuses.

Of the 125, 44 worked in investment banking, 60 in other areas and 21 in retail banking, a figure surpassed only by Britain, which in 2011 had 2,436 bankers paid over one million euros, followed by Germany with 170, and France with 162.

Spain last year received a bailout from its European partners to clean up the balance sheets of banks badly hit by exposure to the ailing real estate sector.