HSBC chief is sorry for 'out of control' bonuses

Stephen Green, chairman of Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, said: "It is clear that the banking industry got it wrong in the go-go years."

But the high street lender also revealed it paid two of its bankers almost £25 million last year, virtually all of it in the form of bonus or "signing on" fees. They are thought to be Tom Cole and Dan Toscano, HSBC's co-heads of leveraged and acquisition finance in the US.

Both were head-hunted from rival Deutsche Bank in September 2007 and are believed to have been paid huge guaranteed bonuses to lure them to HSBC.

The accounts show one got between £13.7million and £13.8million and the other between £11 million and £11.1 million last year. Their packages are thought to have been almost entirely in the form of bonuses and fees with only a relatively small amount as base pay.

Industry sources suggested deals on that scale were unlikely to be seen in the City or on Wall Street for many years. "These are very much 2007 negotiated packages," one said.

The executive directors and MrGreen waived bonuses of more than £10million but the board and senior management still got $49.84million (£34.9million) with pay and benefits.

The biggest loser was Stuart Gulliver, head of HSBC's investment banking arm, who was entitled to a bonus of £5.6million.

Today's apology from Mr Green is the most fulsome recognition yet from the City of the intensity of anger over huge bonuses paid to traders and bankers whose deals helped trigger the global financial meltdown. It goes far beyond those from the four former bosses of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS at the Treasury select committee last month.

Mr Green said: "The industry has done many things wrong. It is important to remember that many ordinary bankers have always sought to provide good service to their customers, but we must also recognise that there have been too many who have profoundly damaged the industry's reputation.

"Inappropriate products were sold inappropriately by many. Compensation practices ran out of control and perverse incentives led to dangerous outcomes. There is genuine and widespread anger that the contributors to the crisis were in some cases amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the system."

He said the bonus system would survive but in a "sober and reasonable" form and that a "small number" of top performers would continue to get rewards that were "high in absolute terms".