Banking giant HSBC has hiked its staff bonus pool by nearly a third, up from 2.7 billion US dollars (£2 billion) in 2020, while chief executive Noel Quinn picked up a total pay package of £9 million for 2021. The group has handed out a mammoth 3.5 billion US dollars (£2.6 billion) in bonuses as it revealed annual profits more than doubled.
The bumper payouts came as HSBC reported pre-tax profits of 18.9 billion US dollars (£13.9 billion) for 2021, up from 8.8 billion US dollars (£6.5 billion) in 2020, when pre-tax profits fell 34% due to hefty provisions for pandemic loan losses.
HSBC results have been buoyed as it joined fellow banks in releasing bad debt cash set aside in the early days of the pandemic after defaults have proved lower than feared across the sector.
There was also cheer for investors as the group approved a second interim dividend of 0.18 dollars
(£0.13) per share, making a total for 2021 of 0.25 dollars (£0.18) per share as all regions reported a
profit.
