HSBC chairman booed by former employees on pensions

HSBC’s chairman was yesterday jeered with cries of ‘shame’ by furious former staff who say the bank is unfairly clawing back a chunk of their pensions.

Mark Tucker faced boos and repeated interruptions from campaigners at the bank’s annual general meeting in London. 

The long-running battle by thousands of former employees, most of whom joined the Midland Bank before it was taken over by HSBC, was compared by one of them to the Post Office scandal.

The campaigners point out that even as the bank refuses to budge over pensioners’ hardship, it is rewarding bosses with huge pay rises and preparing to lift a cap on bonuses for leading employees.

The furore comes as Tucker faced a series of major challenges – including the search for a third chief executive in less than eight years after Noel Quinn announced his retirement. 

Jeers: The battle by thousands of former employees, most of whom joined the Midland Bank before it was taken over by HSBC, was compared by one of them to the Post Office scandal

The AGM descended into acrimony as members of the Midland Clawback Campaign, many wearing red T-shirts with the slogan ‘HSBC – hands off our pensions’, made their voices heard.

They are calling for an end to the practice by which some members of the bank’s final salary scheme have money cut from their private pension pay-outs when they start receiving the state pension. At the same time, they point out that Quinn’s pay has nearly doubled to £10.6m. A portion of that is a £134,000 cash payment in lieu of pension.

The ‘clawback’ affects 52,000 people who joined the Midland scheme between 1975 and 1996 when it closed.

Nancy Ball, who leads the Midland Clawback Campaign said some former employees were seeing their pensions fall by around a quarter as a result of the clawback. She told the board: ‘I was one of the top performers – I thought you had my back but oh no you didn’t. Shame on you all.’

Tucker said it was an ‘important and emotional subject’ but that the issue had been reviewed many times and the deduction found to have been ‘lawful and properly communicated to members’ – before he was roundly heckled and jeered.

The campaigners lost an AGM vote aiming to change the practice. Val Twigg, 62, who worked at the bank for more than 46 years, drew a parallel with postmasters who were wrongly hounded by the Post Office to recover money it claimed they misappropriated.