HSBC to pay top investment banker £10 million bonus

Banking giant HSBC is to pay one of its top London investment bankers a bonus of nearly £10 million.

Stuart Gulliver will receive £9.8 million although this will be in shares over three years.

According to Reuters another two unnamed bankers will receive bonuses of more than £9 million.

HSBC defended the bonus payment saying that they represented a "legitimate and proper element of reward" and were "market-based".

The bank is rewarding the three investment bankers for higher than expected results in certain areas.

HSBC performed well in emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America. The Global Banking and Markets portfolio of which Mr Gulliver is in charge was responsible for approximately 100 per cent of profits made last year by the whole company.

The banking group's chairman Stephen Green admitted to a press conference (March 1st) that it was a sensitive time for bonuses to be paid out to those in banking jobs but stressed that those payments were low compared to other investment banks.

"We absolutely believe that the decisions we have taken on this year's remuneration awards are right - for all of our stakeholders," he said.

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