Millionaire bankers fled London for Ireland and the rest of the EU before Brexit, new data shows.

The number of bankers earning over €1m in Ireland in 2019 jumped to 34 from 28 the previous year, according to data from the European Banking Authority (EBA).

That works out to an increase of around 21pc.

The EBA said on Wednesday that the shift in high earners was largely down to Brexit but was also influenced by good financial results in some banks and ongoing restructuring in the sector, which saw some banking chiefs getting major severance payoffs.

“The increase of high earners resulted mostly from the impact of the relocation of staff from the UK to EU27 as part of Brexit preparations,” the EBA said in a press release.

Italy, France and Germany were the biggest winners overall from the Brexodus, according to the EBA, which itself shifted premises from London to Paris in 2019.

The proportion of bankers earning over a million euros rose by almost 17pc in Italy in 2019 (to 241, from 206 in 2018), by over 15pc in France (to 270 from 234) and by just over 9pc in Germany (to 492 from 450).

The figure for the UK fell by 2.63pc in 2019, although the country continued to have by far the largest cohort of high earners at 3519, making up almost 71pc of the total number of higher earners in the formerly 28-member EU.

The EBA will stop publishing figures for the UK next year.

Belgium, Spain, Finland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovenia also lost a share of high earners in 2019.

Meanwhile, Irish asset managers are earning five times more in bonuses than they do from their fixed salaries, the most significant difference in the EU.

In 2019, Irish asset managers earned just over €1m in fixed salaries, compared to €5.4m in bonuses, a ratio of variable to fixed pay of 510pc.

The EU average ratio was 339pc in 2019.

Bankers in Ireland are earning slightly more from bonuses than they are from their fixed salaries, the data showed.

They earned a total of €36.5m in fixed remuneration in 2019, compared to €39.2m in bonuses or “variable remuneration”.

Overall in the EU, the average ratio between bonuses and fixed salaries decreased from 139pc in 2018 to 129pc in 2019. It was 108pc in Ireland in 2019.