HSBC plans to double the basic pay of hundreds of its top investment bankers in a move that risks inflaming the row about City pay. Amid growing opposition to large cash awards, from the government, regulators and the public, the banking group will significantly increase the percentage of the total payout that its senior investment bankers receive as salary, and reduce the bonus component. New Europe-wide rules, which are likely to be finalised next month, will defer the payment of bonuses and reduce the percentage paid in cash.
As the pay increases are handed out by HSBC to staff across the world, especially those in London, New York and Hong Kong, Goldman Sachs is preparing to name 100 or so new partners, who will immediately be propelled into top-earning status at the Wall Street firm. In a sign of the tension surrounding the payment of huge banking bonuses at a time of public spending cuts, Treasury minister Mark Hoban said today that the banks would have to "think very hard" about the forthcoming bonus round.
HSBC's move came to light less than a fortnight after the bank complained bitterly about the impact of new bonus rules, which it warned may force it to reconsider its London headquarters. HSBC said then that it had failed to hire up to 15 bankers in Hong Kong because of a Financial Services Authority rule that stops it offering two-year guaranteed bonuses.
Furthermore, it complained that the new rules could place it at a disadvantage compared with banks based in the US. The rules are being brought in by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors and are expected to allow recipients to be paid only a fifth of their bonuses upfront as cash. The rest will be spread out over at least three years and much of it will be in shares.
Chuka Umunna, a Labour MP on the Treasury select committee, said of the HSBC bonuses: "This raises further questions, at a time when banks are able to double the basic pay of investment bankers, why the government is seeming to water down the banking levy and also brings into sharper focus the delay in implementing the disclosure of remuneration of bankers."
The chancellor, George Osborne, has introduced an annual £2.5bn levy on the banks, much lower than many had expected. However, as it issued an upbeat trading statement this month, HSBC cited the levy as another consideration as it prepares to review the location of its London head office next year.
Under the levy, which comes into force on 1 January, HSBC would face an annual bill of about £550m. The bank today declined to comment on its investment bankers' salaries. City sources said they believed the aim was simply to "rebalance" overall pay and insisted there would be a corresponding decrease in the bonus pot.
HSBC is the latest in a series of banks which have raised salaries to sidestep the bonus clampdown. UBS last year significantly raised the salaries of senior investment bankers and sharply reduced their bonuses. The Swiss bank was followed by Barclays, which handed hefty pay rises to investment bankers at its Barclays Capital division at the end of last year.
The Guardian
