Traders rake in millions

277 French bankers earn more than a million Euros.

About 277 employees of various French banks earn more than 1 million Euros annually. This was reported by the financial daily les Échos now that European banks have been forced to disclose this information for the first time. BNP Paribas employs 149 bankers with millionaire salaries; Société générale has 109 and Natixis,19. "Most of them are traders and not executives. They handle large sums of money and are rewarded with salaries that in no way reflect the work they do", explains Régis de Santos, president of the National Banking and Credit Union (SNB). According to him, these astronomical salaries are a global problem that cannot be fixed by France alone. As per figures released by the European Banking authority, Deutsche Bank is the leading culprit. The bank pays more than 1 200 million Euros to 816 employees, which is the equivalent of 24 000 jobs at an annual salary of 50 000 Euros each. Equally shocking is the case of Royal Bank of Scotland with 110 millionaire employees, given that the Bank had to be rescued with public funds following the financial crisis in 2008.

"The discrepancy when compared to the large majority of bank employees is huge", says Régis de Santos who points out that a fresh hire in a bank branch typically earns 1 100 Euros per month. It is worth remembering that the employees of Société générale, Natixis and BNP Paribas continue to fall under social plans alongside thousands of jobs that were lost since the onset of the crisis.