HSBC's traders had other awkward questions at Friday's townhall

As we have already noted, HSBC's town halls last week seemed a little fraught. At one, involving bankers on Thursday, there were questions as to who, exactly, got the bonus pool for 2024. At another, involving salespeople and traders on Friday, there were questions on what happened to a more specific bonus pool in Asia.

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Once again, HSBC isn't commenting, but people who attended the Friday meeting say the most popular question asked was, "How can HSBC retain talent when pay is not competitive." They say the second most popular question asked was, “Why was Institutional Sales Asia bonus pool down by 8% when the revenues were up by more than 20%. Our management told us we had a record year”.

The Friday town hall took place in Hong Kong, but was available for HSBC staff to attend globally. People were able to gauge the popularity of questions by upvotes online. 

Attendees claim that Patrick George, HSBC's global head of markets and securities services, seemed slightly stymied by the questions. 

Disgruntled Asian salespeople have been complaining for a while that senior figures like Wan Sze, head of APAC institutional sales, seem to have got paid, while - they say - everyone else was not. 

HSBC is closing its M&A and equity capital markets businesses in the UK, Europe and the US but keeping those businesses in Asia and the Middle East, and keeping sales and trading (subject to a possible outsourcing agreement with Citadel Securities) and debt capital markets (DCM). HSBC's DCM bankers also say they were poorly paid, while bankers let go were given zero bonuses. There are unconfirmed suggestions that severance pay was deducted from the bonus pool, along with the cost of making new and expensive external hires.  

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