HSBC has $2bn pay pot

1st Feb 2011 12:08

HSBC has more than $2bn (£1.3bn) in extra pay and bonuses to share out among its investment bankers, it admitted today.Some staff had already received pay rises worth $150m (£93m) ahead of the bonus season, chairman Douglas Flint told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee."The point is to reduce the leverage. We should remember that the bonus pot is there to incentivise people for delivering against the objective they have been set at the beginning of the year ... What we are trying to do is manage the structure of the compensation," said the former HSBC finance director, who only took over the chairman's role in December.The 55-year-old Scot says the bank's remuneration committee will meet later this week to hammer out the details."We haven't determined what it's going to be this year ... but it's about two," Flint confirmed when asked about the size of the pay and bonus fund. Two meant $2bn.HSBC gives more information on salaries than rival British banks because of rules set out by Hong Kong.Taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland will soon reveal its own pay agenda. RBS is currently in talks with the government about pay and lending as part of Project Merlin, but it's expected to have about £1bn to dish out among employees.