Remuneration of Directors, Senior Management and Key Personnel

 

In determining the remuneration of the Directors, it’s the Bank’s policy in rewarding competitively the achievement of long-term sustainable performance. Our goal is to attract, motivate and retain the very best people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, disability or any other factor unrelated to performance. This supports the long-term interests of our stakeholders, which includes the customers and the communities we serve, our shareholders and our regulators.
 
Remuneration of Directors

 

The remuneration paid to NEDs and EDs is subject to annual review in accordance with the remuneration framework of the Bank.  

 

The level of fees paid to NEDs is determined with reference to the Directors’ responsibilities and commitment, and fees paid by comparable institutions. No equity-based remuneration with performance-related elements is granted to INEDs by the Bank to ensure their objectivity and independence.

 

As regards Executive Directors (“EDs”), the following factors are considered when determining their remuneration packages:


balanced scorecard of relevant financial and non-financial objectives including appropriate risk and compliance objectives, differentiated by performance
general business and economic conditions
changes in appropriate markets such as supply/demand fluctuations and changes in competitive conditions
individual contributions to the Bank
right behaviours aligned with the Group values, culture and conduct expectation
retention consideration and individual potential

 

No individual Director will be involved in decisions relating to his/her own remuneration.


The current scale of Director’s fees, and fees for chairmen and members of the Non-executive Board Committees, namely, Audit Committee, Risk Committee, Remuneration Committee and Nomination Committee, are set out below:


 

 

Non-deferred

  Deferred
  (HK$)   (HK$)
Board of Directors Note 1   Remuneration Committee
 
Chairman 860,000
Chairman
340,000
Non-executive Directors 660,000
Members
200,000
Audit Committee / Risk Committee
  Nomination Committee
 
Chairman 610,000
Chairman 450,000
Members 290,000
Members 200,000

Note 1
In line with the remuneration policy of HSBC Group, no Director’s fee is payable to those Directors who are full time employees of the Bank and its subsidiaries.

 

Remuneration of Senior Management and Key Personnel

 

According to HKMA’s Supervisory Policy Manual CG-5 “Guideline on a Sound Remuneration System”, authorised institutions are required to make disclosures in relation to their remuneration systems as appropriate. The Bank has fully complied with HKMA’s disclosure requirements set out in Part 3 of the said Guideline.

 

There are 20 Senior Management members Note 2 and 8 Key Personnel Note 3 in 2022. The aggregate amount of remuneration Note 4 of the Senior Management and Key Personnel during the year, split into fixed and variable remuneration, is set out below:

 

 

 Remuneration amount and quantitative information

2022

2021

 

 Fixed remuneration

 

 

1

 Number of employees

28

25

2

 Total fixed remuneration (HK$ ’000)

78,366

74,861

3

       Of which: cash-based

78,366

74,861

 

 Variable remuneration

 

 

4

 Number of employees Note 5

28

25

5

 Total variable remuneration (HK$ ’000) Note 6

51,989

48,806

6

       Of which: cash-based

28,469

27,456

7

        Of which: deferred

9,178

8,283

8

     Of which: shares or other share-linked instruments

23,520

21,350

9

        Of which: deferred

12,529

11,252

10

 Total remuneration (HK$ ’000)

130,555

123,667

 

Note 2

Senior Management refers to those executives who are (a) EDs of the Bank; (b) Alternate Chief Executives of the Bank; (c) Members of the Executive Committee of the Bank; and (d) Head(s) of the Bank’s principal subsidiary/subsidiaries with offshore operations and with total assets representing more than 5% of the Bank’s total assets.

 

Note 3

Key Personnel refers to employees classified as “Identified Staff and Material Risk Takers” (collectively referred as “Material Risk Takers” or “MRTs”) under the UK Prudential Regulation Authority Remuneration Rules.

 

Note 4

Remuneration refers to all remuneration payable to employees during the year with reference to their tenure as Senior Management and Key Personnel. The forms of variable remuneration and the proportion deferred are based on the seniority, role and responsibilities of employees and their level of total variable compensation. As the total number of Senior Management and Key Personnel involved is relatively small, to avoid individual figures being deduced from the disclosure, aggregate figures are disclosed in this section.

 

Note 5
Number of employees disclosed above includes leavers who may have zero variable pay.

 

Note 6
No deferred variable remuneration had been reduced through performance adjustments in 2022 and 2021.

 

The aggregate amount of special payments of the Senior Management and Key Personnel during the year is set out below:

 

 

 Special payments

2022

2021

Number of employees

Total amount

(HK$ ’000)

Number of employees

Total amount

(HK$ ’000)

1

 Guaranteed bonuses

-

-

-

-

2

 Severance payments

-

-

-

-

 

The aggregate amount of deferred and retained variable remuneration of Senior Management and Key Personnel is set out below:

 

 

 

2022

2021

 

 Deferred and retained remuneration

(HK$ ’000)

Cash

Shares

Cash

Shares

1

Total amount of outstanding deferred remuneration Note 7 & 9

20,527

27,615

22,449

27,134

2

Of which: Total amount of outstanding deferred and retained remuneration exposed to ex post explicit and/or implicit adjustment

20,527

27,615

22,449

27,134

3

Total amount of amendment during the year due to ex post implicit adjustments Note 10

-

2,033

-

3,389

4

Total amount of deferred remuneration paid out in the financial year Note 8, 9 & 11

9,826

18,898

2,635

754

 

Note 7

Outstanding, unvested, deferred remuneration is exposed to ex post explicit adjustments via malus.

 

Note 8

Paid and vested variable pay made to Material Risk Takers is subject to clawback.

 

Note 9

There is no reduction of deferred remuneration and retained remuneration due to ex post explicit adjustments during 2022 and 2021 via the application of malus and/or clawback.

 

Note 10

Outstanding, unvested, deferred shares are exposed to ex post implicit adjustments. The total value of these shares was calculated based on the closing market share price of HSBC Holding plc (London) as at 31 December of the respective financial years. HSBC’s share price was 14.94% higher as at 31 December 2022 when compared to that of 31 December 2021.

 

Note 11
The total amount of deferred remuneration paid out in the financial year reported for 2021 was under reported. Correct numbers are outlined in the table.