By Huw Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union's banking watchdog called on lenders on Friday to back up their complaints that a blanket application of the bloc's bonus rules will harm the single market.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) is updating guidance on banker pay, such as when part of a bonus should be deferred or what constitutes fixed and variable pay. It also reflects the bloc's new cap on bonuses of top earners.
The rules are aimed at stopping bankers taking excessive risks to earn big bonuses.
Lenders want the revised rules, set to be in place from the end of 2015, to be applied "proportionately" with exemptions for less risky banks or staff getting modest pay outs.
EBA Chairman Andrea Enria said at a hearing on Friday that lawyers have advised there cannot be waivers from minimum requirements such as bonus deferrals.
The watchdog has asked the EU to amend the law to make it easier to apply proportionality but this could take years.
In the meantime EBA wants lenders to provide proof that the bloc's single market would suffer under blanket rules.
The German savings banks association told the hearing that more than half of staff in the sector have bonuses of less than 1,000 euros (£726), creating an administrative headache for deferring relatively small sums.
"It is nonsense to implement these rules... The principle of proportionality must lead to exemptions in some cases at the extreme lower end," a representative told the hearing.
While the bonus cap is binding, some elements are applied by national supervisors on a "comply or explain" basis, meaning the supervisor has some flexibility.
Isabelle Vaillant, an EBA director, said some countries may end up using this as a way of introducing proportionality.
Asset managers, who are part of banking groups argued at the hearing that they should be exempted as they don't pose the same kind of threat to the financial system as a bank.
But EBA officials rejected that argument, saying asset managers can present reputational and operational risks that can harm the parent company.