I don't know that we can characterize the EIB as "running a tight ship" regarding staffing based on the graphic you display here.  From what I can see here and from glancing at their website, EIB is a mostly wholesale lender, which means it participates in or leads large lending packages for major enterprises, and it lends large amounts of money to other lenders who have the actual branch networks and retail relationships with smaller-sized borrowers. Large wholesale lending does not require very many people -- it takes roughly the same number of work hours to make a 100,000 euro loan as it does to make a 100 million euro loan or larger, so it seems misleading to chart asset size with employment.  Number of loans, not size of the loan portfolio, would be a more meaningful measurement.

I am employed, myself, by a similarly large wholesale lender of approximately the same asset size as EIB, and we engage in similar kinds of wholesale and development lending in the agricultural sector (including wind generators). Yet our staff is only about 250 people, and although we remain busy, we are certainly not overworked or stressed, especially compared to some of our more frantic peers elsewhere in the financial industry.

Does EIB also engage in direct, retail banking with small business or individuals that explain its staffing needs? 1500 people for a 50 billion euro bank makes it seem like it has to have a good-sized network of branches around the continent?  Is this so?