London banking bosses to give bonuses to charity

The bosses of two leading UK banks will give their annual bonuses to charity.

According to the Telegraph HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan will donate his £4 million to a charity supporting child education. Standard Chartered chief executive Peter Sands will also donate his £2 million bonus payment to a good cause.

As a result, the bosses of Britain's five biggest banks have all waived their bonuses for this year.

However, Lloyds Banking Group chairman Sir Win Bischoff told the Telegraph that people in senior banking jobs should in future be able to take bonuses without feeling the need to give up "the rewards they have earned".

The news comes as HSBC published its annual results showing a 24 per cent drop in profits (£4.7 billion) although these take into account write-downs on assets.

The bank's underlying pre-tax profit was up 56 per cent to £8.8 billion.

Mr Geoghegan said that the bank's strong position had helped it to assist customers throughout its supply chain.

Standard Chartered posts its annual results on Wednesday which is expected to reveal the bank has beaten last year's record profits, with banking operations said to be unaffected by concerns over Dubai's financial crisis.

Updated: 02 March 2010.
Categories: banking-and-financial-services, market-and-industry-news.