HSBC's zero bonuses risk upsetting already traumatised bankers

When HSBC announced its bonuses last year, some people had a shock. Not only were they receiving zero bonuses, they were losing their jobs. In the words of CEO Georges Elhedery, the bank had decided to be ruthless. 

Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.

"We were split into three categories," one HSBC insider told us at the time. "a) Fired today (no bonus, here is your severance package); b; Short term retention (finish your project and then likely severance and small bonus); c). Long term retention." It was a surprise: "HSBC had a reputation for looking after [its] people,” another employee reflected. Recent reports suggest that 25% of managing directors were let go. 

Now it seems that HSBC is doubling down on its new reputation for ruthlessness. Bloomberg reports that the bank is preparing to pay some people zero bonuses for 2025 as it moves to a Jefferies-style 'eat what you kill' mentality, albeit without Jefferies' cash. MDs will be included in this new bonus approach, which is presumably being overseen by ex-Citi corporate banker Michael Roberts, head of the corporate and institutional bank, and his close colleague Gerry Keefe. 

Eating what you kill is a fine aspiration, but it is not necessarily as clean cut as chasing and eating a horned beast. Banks are notoriously political places and if a beast is about to be killed, all the big cats will gather round and claim their part in taking it down. Evercore, for example, operates an eat what you kill approach to bonuses, and when its MDs submit numbers for deals they've each originated, those numbers reportedly always exceed the total. 

Things could be particularly brutal at HSBC, where the corporate and institutional bank were combined in 2024. There are now corporate bankers, investment bankers, sector teams, product teams and the remaining M&A execution team all vying to claim that they made the kill.

Jefferies is supposed to be moving away from this model in an attempt to become more collusive. HSBC reportedly wants its zeroed bankers to leave. Unhappy people could always try there instead.

 Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, WhatsApp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Signal: sarahbutcher.22  Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. 

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.