The research shows that the decline in salaries of bank CEOs was "due in part to a 3.6 million euro penalty paid to the former CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, Enrico Cucchiani, for early termination of his contract in 2013". However, despite this decline, the average pay of top managers was still 53 times higher than that of an employee.
The pay of the new CEO of Carige has tripled since 2013 because it includes a 1.07 million incentive as one-time payment for acceptance of the role and the powers of a chief executive. The fixed component for the salaries of bank executives accounted for 80 percent of total remuneration, and among the 11 banks in the sample, no CEO received a salary lower than 800,000 euros in 2014. Bank CEOs were paid 53 times more than staff in 2014, compared to 62 times in 2013 and 53 in 2012. The presidents of the banks in 2014 earned the equivalent of 18 times the salary of an employee, compared to 26 times in 2013 and 28 in 2012.
The total remuneration of the presidents surveyed was down 20.93 percent, primarily due to decreases for the presidents of Banca Popolare di Sondrio and Banca Carige. The President of MPS, Alessandro Profumo, was the only one to earn less than 200,000 euros because he waived his fees. Banks profits were up in 2014 over the previous year, although the income statements were influenced by adjustments to loans due to the asset quality review required by the European Central Bank, which meant that some banks recorded an operating loss. The pay of the CEOs of the five insurance companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, subject to UILCA research, was up 1.6 percent from the previous year, 43.44 percent of which was variable and 56.56 percent fixed. This composition is different from the banking sector, where the variable share was 20 percent in 2014. The total profit of the insurance companies analysed rose by 8 percent, as did the ratio between the average salary of an insurance sector CEO compared to an employee, which was up from 79 in 2013 to 81 in 2014. The CEOs of Italy's two largest companies have earnings equivalent to 148 and 106 times that of an average employee. (AGI)