Spanish bank BBVA is complaining to the European Commission, expressing its concerns that regulation pertaining to EU caps on bankers’ bonuses are damaging its ability to attract tech talent.
The firm claims that tech experts are wrongly coming under EU CRD 4 legislation, which rules that staff identified as risk-takers or those earning more than €500,000 ($567,000) a year have their bonuses capped at 100% of their fixed pay.
The rule’s intention is to prevent banks from incentivising risky business among staff such as traders, but BBVA claims that tech experts, such as data analysts and web designers are also being affected by the rule due to their high salaries. As a result the bank is asking that the definition of risk takers within CRD to be tightened to exclude those in other job categories.
BBVA is one of the most-active banks in the fintech space having acquired Finnish digital bank Holvi and made investments, through its venture arm, in startups including lending marketplace Prosper, bitcoin wallet Coinbase and mobile payments firm SumUp.
The company says that the regulations will hold back its ability to compete with US-based banks or fintech companies when it comes acquisitions.
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