The chief executive, chairman and two executive directors of HSBC receive 50 per cent of their basic salary in cash in lieu of a pension, reports The Times.
That has meant that Stuart Gulliver, the chief executive, and Douglas Flint, the chairman, received a combined total of nearly £1.4 million.
HSBC said that it had “committed to review the level of cash pension allowances for executive directors in our last remuneration report . . . and we will bring our policy in line with other top FTSE companies from January 1”.
It is the latest attempt by Britain’s biggest bank to save money. Staff at HSBC’s investment banking division in London were ordered to take two weeks of unpaid leave by the end of the year.
Mr Gulliver is under pressure to save money and has set out plans to trim the bank’s huge cost base, particularly in investment banking.
He has pledged to find between $4.5 billion and $5 billion savings by 2017, a target almost certain to hit jobs. Analysts say 25,000 jobs could go worldwide, 8,000 in Britain.
