2024 bonus cash pool $3.80 billion vs $3.77 billion in 2023
Global workforce at 220,928 last year vs 227,552 in 2023
CEO Elhedery received $6.8 million in compensation last year
By Scott Murdoch and Selena Li
SYDNEY/HONG KONG, Feb 19 (Reuters) - HSBC's HSBA.L headcount fell 3% last year and its staff bonus pool hardly changed as a new CEO sharpened focus on costs and initiated sweeping restructuring of the Asia-focused lender, showed its 2024 financial report issued on Wednesday.
The bank's bonus cash pool reached $3.80 billion in 2024 versus $3.77 billion a year earlier, the report showed.
HSBC posted annual profit that beat market estimates, helped by increased revenue in wealth and markets businesses. It also set stiff cost-cutting targets under CEO Georges Elhedery's push to boost returns with increasing attention on Asia where the London-headquartered bank earns the bulk of its profit.
Elhedery received 5.4 million pounds ($6.8 million) in total compensation for 2024, fattened by an annual incentive applied after Britain's removal of a cap on bonuses for top bankers.
The CEO could earn as much as 15.2 million pounds ($19.2 million) in the current year, with more than half comprised of the variable or bonus component, the report showed.
HSBC shareholders in May backed a resolution to lift a cap on bonuses for its top UK bankers after Britain axed a policy limiting payouts inherited from the European Union.
Banks including Barclays BARC.L, Goldman Sachs GS.N and JPMorgan JPM.N have substantially raised caps on bonuses over the past year for their top UK-based bankers.
HSBC's report also showed its global workforce totalled 220,928 across its businesses versus 227,552 in 2023 and 232,642 in 2022. There was a 5.5% reduction in staff at its wealth and personal banking business.
The banks' salary and benefits bill reached $20.15 billion for 2024, up slightly from $19.62 billion one year earlier.
As part of the restructuring, the bank in October said it would combine some of its commercial and investment banking businesses and had installed a new leadership structure.
The bank cut 40 investment bankers in Hong Kong on Monday, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
($1 = 0.7927 pounds)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Christopher Cushing)
((Scott.Murdoch@thomsonreuters.com;))
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