LONDON: HSBC will announce staff bonuses totalling just under £2.4bn ($4bn) globally for 2013 and is expected to report a significant rise in pretax profit, Sky News reported on its website yesterday without citing its sources.
Europe’s biggest bank is expected tomorrow to announce the size of its bonus pool, a sensitive issue as many Britons still blame banks for the 2008 financial crisis after which the state was forced to bail out RBS and Lloyds.
Earlier this month, Barclays prompted an angry reaction from politicians and labour unions after it increased its bonuses by 13 percent to £2.4bn even as it announced plans to axe 12,000 jobs. Sky said the rise in variable pay at HSBC would be smaller than its likely increase in earnings.
A spokesman at HSBC declined comment when contacted.
If made, the bonus payments would be marginally higher than the bank’s 2012 bonus pool of £2.2bn and would come only a year before a new EU bonus cap which Britain is resisting through the courts. Reuters
