Stuart Gulliver’s crisp explanation this week of why he once held his annual bonuses in a Swiss private bank account via a Panamanian company was plausible yet somehow more puzzling than if he had been evading tax. “Being in Switzerland protects me from the Hong Kong staff. Being in Panama protects me from the Swiss staff,” said HSBC’s chief executive.
No doubt, but this is a bank where there used to be no point in concealing a bonus or avoiding tax. Until the 1990s, HSBC awarded a fixed bonus of one month’s pay per year to managers. It still covers the income tax on the basic pay of its 350-strong cadre of international managers. For most of its senior leaders, a Panamanian/Swiss diversion would be a waste of time.
Then there is the notion of being “protected” from your own staff. More than any other bank, Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (as I still think of it) was run at a senior level like an army corps. Its “international officers” trained in a “mess” called Cloudlands on the Peak in Hong Kong and formed into an empire-building force. They were raised, above all, to trust each other.