HSBC directors are in line to pick up a performance bonus from the sale of the banking giant’s Canary Wharf headquarters. The Daily Telegraph

News of the directors’ reward for the £1.1bn property sale adds to mounting pressure on the HSBC board from activist investor Eric Knight, who has already taken issue with management over pay on the grounds that their interests ‘are not properly aligned with shareholders’.

He argued directors should be measured against ‘recurring profits’, and one-off items stripped out to reflect the bank’s underlying performance. ‘What would be sensible if they are aligning themselves with shareholders’ interests would be to exclude non-recurring items as they don’t drive the share price,’ he said.

HSBC said: ‘The remuneration committee did consider stripping one-offs out of the performance measures. However, to do so would have also meant stripping out negative items and made the scheme less transparent to investors. It is not usual for companies to remove one-off items.’