British bank HSBC’s pretax profits surged to a record high of $30.3 billion in 2023—up nearly 80% from a year earlier, thanks to elevated interest rates.
That spelled good news for the London-based bank’s CEO, Noel Quinn, who saw his pay roughly double from £5.56 million ($7 million) in 2022 to £10.6 million ($13.4 million) in 2023, the company said in its annual report Wednesday.
The jump in his pay is linked to the long-term incentives that began to vest following his appointment in 2020.
Quinn’s pay is far ahead of the median employee pay of £63,000 (about $79,400), which rose about 8% compared to a year earlier.
Bonus payouts
Bonus payouts increased by 12% for the last year, marking a reversal from a period when bonuses were flat due to lackluster deal activity in the banking industry.
The bonus amount is typically determined based on business performance at HSBC.
The British lender is planning to launch a new variable bonus structure for junior employees to promote greater transparency in how “on-target performance” impacts pay, HSBC said in its annual report.
Last year, HSBC increased Quinn’s pay while cutting its annual bonus pool.
Barclays, another U.K.-based lender, slashed its bonus pool by 3% as activity at its investment banking division teetered and the group’s annual profits for last year fell by 15%.
Industry-wide pay increases
Citibank’s chief Jane Fraser also got a 6% pay hike, despite the group’s profits plummeting by two-fifths, for her contribution to streamlining the bank’s strategy; she’s still the lowest-paid relative to other banking CEOs.
Other Wall Street majors, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, also announced pay bumps for their chiefs in the last few weeks following an increase in banking profits.
Bank of America was an outlier as it cut CEO Brian Moynihan’s pay by 3%.
Executive pay can be a contentious subject, often because of how starkly high it is compared to the average worker’s pay.
Banks, for their part, have been known to offer a generous amount to their top bosses as they are so-called “material risk-takers.”
Late last year, Britain canceled its cap bankers’ bonus, a policy it took from the European Union, that could improve London’s competitiveness as a global financial hub compared to its peers elsewhere in the world (the limit on variable pay was initially set to 100% of employees’ fixed pay).
The cap’s removal drew the ire of trade unions, Reuters reported, as it came at a time when people continued to be hurt by a cost-of-living crisis in the U.K.
HSBC’s performance amid China-related losses
HSBC’s bumper year follows after fourth-quarter profits sank by 80% year over year due to a hefty $3 billion charge linked to its holdings in China, where a real estate crisis is roiling the economy.
But its business, which includes commercial and investment banking as well as wealth management, has been less impacted by the industry slowdown that some of its peers are facing.
“Our record profit performance in 2023 enabled us to reward our shareholders with our highest full-year dividend since 2008, three share buy-backs last year totaling $7bn, and a further share buy-back of up to $2bn. This reflected four years of hard work and the strength of our balance sheet in a higher interest rate environment,” Quinn said in a statement.
Separately, in an interview with Bloomberg, Quinn said he’s confident about China’s economy—which is a key region for the British lender’s business.
A spokesperson at HSBC pointed Fortune to the company’s annual report outlining CEO pay when approached for comment.
