HSBC fired investment bankers on the day they were due to learn their bonus figures and gave no bonuses to many it let go, in a sign of how the bank is taking a more ruthless approach to costs under new chief executive Georges Elhedery.
The London-based lender told staff in its UK investment banking business last month that they were losing their jobs, having said in January it would shut its mergers and acquisitions advisory work and its equity capital markets business outside of Asia and the Middle East.
Those conversations took place just as bankers expected to learn how much they would receive in bonuses for work done in the calendar year 2024, three people with knowledge of the matter said. But bankers at vice-president level and above within HSBC’s investment banking unit who had their employment terminated as part of the restructuring received no bonus, the people said.