HSBC published the agenda of its annual meeting to be held on May 30 which also enclosed decisions on changes to the continuing incentive scheme for its executives.  The bank bowed down to its shareholder pressure on its executive pay plan even though it rejected the controversial proposals to recompense top bosses with cash bonuses which is equal to four times of their actual salaries. HSBC stated that it would continue to reward executives with 700 percent of the salary in the form of shares as a bonus. But it also stated that the bank had accepted the investors’ demands to shift to a trouble-free method of manipulating total shareholder returns (TSR), a yardstick used to set executive bonuses.

Mike Geoghegan, the chief executive of HSBC received about 3.5 million pounds as salary and bonus during the last year and his salary was around 2.8 million pounds during 2006. Stephen Green, the chairman of the bank got 3 million pound as salary and 1 million pound from shares vesting. HSBC has also set up five promising markets banks and is reviewing its performance against other banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China.