HSBC Holdings Plc’s bonus pool fell by nearly 4% to $3.36 billion in 2022, amid a difficult year for dealmaking.
(Bloomberg) — HSBC Holdings Plc’s bonus pool fell by nearly 4% to $3.36 billion in 2022, amid a difficult year for dealmaking.
The lender protected junior banker bonuses, which rose on average due to inflationary and cost of living challenges, it said in its annual report on Tuesday. Payouts were differentiated by business performance and the strongest outcomes were for commercial banking, followed by wealth and personal banking. They were down for the global banking and markets division.
Global investment banks are pushing hard to keep a lid on costs after increasing their staffing over the past few years in a war for talent. Business has been hard hit in China by regulatory crackdowns and the nation’s now-abandoned pursuit of zero Covid.
Read more on falling banker bonuses in Asia
Ping An Insurance Group Co., HSBC’s biggest shareholder, late last year urged the UK lender to deepen cost cuts, as it pushed the bank to spin off its Asian operations.
The drop in payouts comes after the bank boosted bonuses for 2021 by 31% to about $3.5 billion, the highest since 2014. The figure for 2022 is the lowest since a $2.66 billion payout in 2020.
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