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Journal of Accounting and Economics Vol. 76 No. 1 2023

Compensation regulation in banking: Executive director behavior and bank performance after the EU bonus cap

Stefano Colonnello1; Michael Koetter2,3; Konstantin Wagner2

1 Ca' Foscari University of Venice · 2 Halle Institute for Economic Research · 3 Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

Abstract

The regulation that caps executives’ variable compensation, as part of the Capital Requirements Directive IV of 2013, likely affected executive turnover, compensation design, and risk-taking in EU banking. The current study identifies significantly higher average turnover rates but also finds that they are driven by CEOs at poorly performing banks. Banks indemnified their executives by off-setting the bonus cap with higher fixed compensation. Although our evidence is only suggestive, we do not find any reduction in risk-taking at the bank level, one purported aim of the regulation.

DOI
10.1016/j.jacceco.2022.101576
Volume
76
Issue
1
Pages
101576
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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