(Bloomberg) -- The Dutch government is re-assessing a cap on bank bonuses as lenders argue the restrictions make it harder to attract top talent.

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The finance ministry is conducting an “evaluation” of the laws regulating the level of bankers’ pay and it aims to publish the results in the coming months, a spokesperson said in response to Bloomberg questions. The national parliament would have to ratify any changes before they take effect.

The country’s banks have long cited the country’s stringent bank pay regulation as a major impediment when hiring and retaining executives, who may be able to find better pay outside the Netherlands. ABN Amro Bank NV said in its annual report that the bonus ban has kept pay for its chief executive officers substantially below the European benchmark.

Any softening of the rules would mark the first time the Dutch government tweaks the compensation rules in the banks’ favor since it had to bail out large swathes of the industry in the big financial crisis about a decade and a half ago. ABN Amro was among those banks the country had to prop up with tens of billions of euros in taxpayers’ money.

The Netherlands has only been tightening bonus regulation since then, first introducing a ban on paying variable remuneration for top management at banks in which the country owns a stake. A few years later, it placed a 20% cap on bonuses for bankers across the board, compared with an EU-limit of 100%, and subsequently lengthened holding periods for shares received as compensation.

ABN Amro CEO Swaak last year made €1 million, putting him at the low end of top bank executives across Europe. When ING Groep NV’s then-CEO Ralph Hamers got tapped to head Swiss bank UBS Group AG in 2020, he was getting paid about €2 million ($2.2 million) annually. He earned $12.6 million at UBS the next year.

ABN Amro and ING have had run-ins with the Dutch government in the past over how much they pay their leadership. The bonus cap also made it more difficult for the Netherlands to attract banks after Brexit, with most instead opting to go to places like Paris, Frankfurt or Milan.

Banks in the City of London, meanwhile, are scrapping bonus caps completely after the UK government dropped the EU-wide limits following Brexit.

The Dutch regulation under review now also stipulates that the fixed salary for members of the executive board at state-held banks can only increase as quickly as raises negotiated with the labor unions in collective agreements for the industry.

(Updates with details throughout)

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