Bonuses Paid To Some Asian Bank Staff May Surpass Payouts In West - Report

Tom Burroughes

8 January 2014

Bonuses paid to a number of Hong Kong-based employees at Asian financial firms, including a number of Mainland firm banks and securities businesses, are likely to be higher than expected this year than those enjoyed by Western peers, according to the South China Morning Post, quoting local sources.

Executives at the Hong Kong offices of several mainland firms, including Haitong Securities and China Merchants Securities, told the publication they had received year-end bonuses of double their salary late in December last year or in the first week of 2014. Many of these individuals expect a further payout in the first quarter as part of their 2013 bonus.

Lenders such as Singapore-based are expected to give many of their staff in Hong Kong a 2013 bonus equal to five or six months’ salaries on average, the publication reported. It quoted a DBS spokesperson saying the bank would offer “competitive remuneration”; the bank did not specify an amount.

UOB said it was in the process of specifying its numbers but did not give a figure.

The year-end season for bonuses is typically a time when critics of banks’ heavy losses in recent years have complained that the remuneration system still does not align incentives of bank staff with the long-term health of banks and clients. A number of countries have sought to control bonuses or exhort banks to defer payments.