HSBC interim chief executive’s pay set to rise to £1.3m
HSBC has revealed chief executive Noel Quinn will receive a 2.5 per cent pay rise, bringing his total salary to £1.3m, while finance boss Ewen Stevenson’s salary will rise to £741k.
Last month, the bank unveiled a radical strategy overhaul alongside its annual results. Under the plans, HSBC will cut 35,000 jobs over the next three years and shed £100bn of assets.
The bank said it was targeting $4.5bn of cost reductions with Quinn saying: “There will be job reductions necessary to achieve that cost reduction.”
HSBC came under criticism from some shareholders and analysts for the announcement without clarity on who would lead the bank through the process.
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Many of HSBC’s investors had expected a new boss to be in place before the turnaround plan got underway but it did not name a new chief executive alongside its results.
Quinn was appointed to the board as interim chief executive in August 2019 after John Flint’s abrupt departure. He has spent 27 years at the bank and was mostly recently chief executive of global commercial banking.
Stevenson was appointed to the board last January after four years as chief financial officer at RBS.
In HSBC’s annual financial report, the bank said the annual incentive for executive directors could be up to 215 per cent of a base salary.
The search for a new chief executive is ongoing.