LONDON — Brexit led to the migration of high-earning bankers to the continent in 2019, a report by the European Banking Authority revealed on Wednesday.

The EBA describes high earners as professional bankers working for European Union banks earning a fixed or variable annual remuneration of more than one million euros.

According to the report, 71% of the total number of high earners in all of EU were located in the United Kingdom prior to the country’s exit from the union. This amounted to 3,519 individuals.

However, “as part of Brexit preparations,” according to the EBA, countries “across the EU registered a slight increase in the number of high earners, particularly Germany, France, and Italy.”

This increase was partly due to the 2.63% of the individuals in the UK choosing to move to the continent.

Other than the Brexit factor, the rise in the number of high earners was due to “the overall good financial results, particularly in corporate banking, and the ongoing restructuring and consolidations.”

The report noted that in 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of bankers earning more than a million euros increased by 17% in Italy, 15% in France and 9% in Germany. — Euronews