HSBC (HSBA) Proposes Executive Pay Cuts, Warns Of Brexit Impact

HSBC Holdings said it will propose changes to its pay policy for executive directors to address shareholder concerns about a fall in the U.K-based bank’s market value at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) underway Friday.

HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, proposed a reduction in the amount of cash given to executive directors as pension from 50 percent to 30 percent of their base salary, according to the prepared statement released before the AGM. The bank also proposed tying long-term incentives to a three-year, forward-looking performance period, in the fashion of other companies listed on London’s FTSE.

The new policy will lower the maximum amount its executive directors could earn by 7 percent, the bank said.

The bank will also face questions over its involvement with companies named in the Panama Papers leak. The bank and its affiliates created more than 2,300 companies through Mossack Fonseca.

HSBC's stock has fallen about 13 percent since the start of the year on the London Stock Exchange. Douglas Flint, the chairman of HSBC Holdings PLC, announced last month that a search for his successor was underway.

The bank also said its customers would probably suffer in the event that the U.K. votes to leave the European Union. The bank's own economic research has been "very clear" about the advantages of EU membership for the U.K., Flint said.