HSBC joins RBS in £7.1m payout to bosses to dodge bonus cap
Bosses at HSBC yesterday received £7.1m in shares in a new fixed allowance which avoids Brussels’ bonus cap.
The EU rules stop banks paying bonuses of more than twice that bosses’ salaries.
So banks have had to come up with new ways to raise their fixed pay to avoid being hit by the rules.
The 15-strong group of managers received the fixed payouts based on their roles. They can be renegotiated more easily than their salaries, but are less flexible than bonuses.
British regulators had joined banks in campaigning against the bonus caps – they fear that if British banks cannot pay as much as US and Asian rivals, the best bankers will quit.
HSBC’s investment banking boss Samir Assaf was best paid, receiving 240,318 shares – worth £1.5m. Chief Stuart Gulliver gets 135,458 shares. The awards are paid out over the next six years.
RBS announced its allowances earlier in the week – it gave 10 staff a total of £3.5m.