IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boe/boeewp/1008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring the effects of bank remuneration rules: evidence from the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Ieva Sakalauskaite

    (Bank of England)

  • Qun Harris

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

In this paper, we study whether and how some of the remuneration rules introduced after the Global Financial Crisis affected bankers’ compensation using a unique regulatory dataset on remuneration in six major UK banks during 2014–19. We find that for bankers most affected by limits on their bonus to fixed pay ratios (the bonus cap), total pay growth did not decrease, but compensation shifted from bonuses to fixed remuneration. We also find some evidence which could indicate that requiring bankers’ bonuses to be deferred for longer periods was correlated with increases in total compensation and a lower proportion of bonuses being deferred.

Suggested Citation

  • Ieva Sakalauskaite & Qun Harris, 2022. "Measuring the effects of bank remuneration rules: evidence from the UK," Bank of England working papers 1008, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:1008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/working-paper/2022/measuring-the-effects-of-bank-remuneration-rules-evidence-from-the-uk.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cerasi, Vittoria & Deininger, Sebastian M. & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Oliviero, Tommaso, 2020. "How post-crisis regulation has affected bank CEO compensation," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Hendrik Hakenes & Isabel Schnabel, 2014. "Bank Bonuses and Bailouts," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(s1), pages 259-288, February.
    3. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger & Stulz, René M., 2011. "Bank CEO incentives and the credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 11-26, January.
    4. John Thanassoulis, 2012. "The Case for Intervening in Bankers’ Pay," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 849-895, June.
    5. John Thanassoulis, 2013. "Industry Structure, Executive Pay, and Short-Termism," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 402-419, June.
    6. Qun Harris & Misa Tanaka & Emma Soane, 2020. "Does bonus cap curb risk taking? An experimental study of relative performance pay and bonus regulation," Bank of England working papers 882, Bank of England.
    7. Anya Kleymenova & İrem Tuna, 2021. "Regulation of Compensation and Systemic Risk: Evidence from the UK," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 1123-1175, June.
    8. Christina E. Bannier & Eberhard Feess & Natalie Packham, 2013. "Competition, Bonuses, and Risk-taking in the Banking Industry," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(2), pages 653-690.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Colonnello, Stefano & Koetter, Michael & Wagner, Konstantin, 2023. "Compensation regulation in banking: Executive director behavior and bank performance after the EU bonus cap," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1).
    2. Stefano Colonnello & Giuliano Curatola & Shuo Xia, 2024. "When Does Linking Pay to Default Reduce Bank Risk?," Working Papers 2024: 07, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    3. Efing, Matthias & Hau, Harald & Kampkötter, Patrick & Steinbrecher, Johannes, 2015. "Incentive pay and bank risk-taking: Evidence from Austrian, German, and Swiss banks," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(S1), pages 123-140.
    4. Eberhard Feess & Ansgar Wohlschlegel, 2018. "Bank capital requirements and mandatory deferral of compensation," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 206-242, April.
    5. van Boxtel, Anton, 2025. "Regulating bank risk in a mobile labour market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    6. Thanassoulis, John, 2014. "Bank pay caps, bank risk, and macroprudential regulation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 139-151.
    7. Jokivuolle, Esa & Keppo, Jussi & Yuan, Xuchuan, 2015. "Bonus caps, deferrals and bankers' risk-taking," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 5/2015, Bank of Finland.
    8. Larry D. Wall, 2020. "Is stricter regulation of incentive compensation the missing piece?," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 82-94, March.
    9. Eufinger, Christian & Gill, Andrej, 2013. "Basel III and CEO compensation in banks: Pay structures as a regulatory signal," SAFE Working Paper Series 9, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    10. Shah, Syed Zulfiqar Ali & Akbar, Saeed & Liu, Jia & Liu, Ziyu & Cao, Sichen, 2017. "CEO compensation and banks’ risk-taking during pre and post financial crisis periods," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1489-1503.
    11. Hilscher, Jens & Landskroner, Yoram & Raviv, Alon, 2021. "Optimal regulation, executive compensation and risk taking by financial institutions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    12. Neus, Werner, 2014. "Eigenkapitalnormen, Boni und Risikoanreize in Banken," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 68(2), pages 92-107.
    13. Li, Minghui & Song, Yiran, 2025. "Bank executive incentives and liquidity creation: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    14. Jennifer Kunz & Mathias Heitz, 2021. "Banks’ risk culture and management control systems: A systematic literature review," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 439-493, December.
    15. Ahmed, Shaker & Ranta, Mikko & Vähämaa, Emilia & Vähämaa, Sami, 2023. "Facial attractiveness and CEO compensation: Evidence from the banking industry," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    16. Gill, Andrej & Heinz, Matthias & Schumacher, Heiner, 2014. "Trust, trustworthiness and selection into the financial industry," CFS Working Paper Series 458, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    17. Gietl, Daniel & Kassner, Bernhard, 2020. "Managerial Overconfidence and Bank Bailouts," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 202-222.
    18. Viral Acharya & Marco Pagano & Paolo Volpin, 2016. "Seeking Alpha: Excess Risk Taking and Competition for Managerial Talent," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(10), pages 2565-2599.
    19. Arif, Salman & Donovan, John & Gopalan, Yadav & Morris, Arthur, 2024. "Pay for prudence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1).
    20. Hendrik Hakenes & Isabel Schnabel, 2014. "Bank Bonuses and Bailouts," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(s1), pages 259-288, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Remuneration regulation; bonus cap; deferral; bank regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:1008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Media Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boegvuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.