HSBC chief defends executive pay

The chairman of British banking group HSBC today rejected criticism of the bank’s executive pay packages.

Sir John Bond said HSBC recognised that senior executive pay was a sensitive subject and that HSBC executives were comparatively well paid.

But Bond, who received a total salary and benefits package in 2003 of £2.1m (€3.1m) – up from £1.9m (€2.8m) the year before – said HSBC executives were underpaid relative to their peers.

He said the bank needed to attract and retain the very best executives and to replace its current team would cost “substantially more than their current pay”.

He added in a speech to the group’s annual meeting in London: “The whole board here costs what one top executive on Wall Street might cost.”

According to the annual accounts of HSBC, Bond was rewarded with shares worth £2.1m (€3.1m) for a year in which pre-tax profits grew by 37% to £7.7bn (€11.5bn).

He also picked up an annual bonus of £1.1m (€1.6m) and a top-up to his pension fund of £2.42m (€3.6m).

The company’s remuneration report also showed that chief executive Stephen Green saw his total salary and benefits package in 2003 rise to £1.24m (€1.9m) from £965,000 (€1.4m) the year before.