HSBC bonuses are paid today. "Whoever can leave, will do"
It is the first of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It's also the day that HSBC actually pays its bonuses. People there may take flight as a result.
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"Whoever can leave will do so," says one senior HSBC insider. "People have been lining up jobs, especially at the junior end."
HSBC declined to comment on the timing of its bonus payments. The bank's annual report, published last month, revealed that the bonus pool globally was kept roughly stable in 2024 versus 2023, at $3.8bn. However, average compensation for material risk takers (typically senior traders and managing directors) in the investment bank, fell to $1.3m from $1.4m a year earlier. Bonuses were announced in mid-February.
The payment of HSBC's bonuses follows the bank's unexpected decision to pull out of the equity capital markets and M&A businesses in the UK, Europe and the US. Several hundred people have lost their jobs as a result, but many are being kept on, and are working on short term contracts while existing deal mandates are completed.
With bonuses for 2024 paid, HSBC insiders say the risk is that people will leave irrespective of attempts to lock them in for short periods. This is particularly acute for analysts and associates, many of whom were retained in the first round of cuts, but who have been frantically looking for jobs since.
They may have good reason to do so. There are suggestions that HSBC's next round of job cuts, coming soon in Q2, will impact junior staff more than the rest.
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