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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » WHY is it that this country is so quick to criticise people for being successful?
The news that five directors at banking giant HSBC are set to share a ã120m windfall during the next three years has been met with incredulity by the business world.
How can this be so, the critics cried, when the UKâÂÂs largest bank announced write-downs of around ã8.7bn only three months ago?
What they failed to understand, however, was that although the decline in the US housing market had hit the value of HSBCâÂÂs loans, annual profits still rose 10% to $24.2bn (ã12.2bn), up from $22.08bn the year before.
Amid the current financial chaos, that takes some doing.
At the time of the trading announcement, HSBC said the banking group was fundamentally strong and it had increased the shareholder dividend by 11% to 90 cents per share.
Its results were better than many in the City had predicted, so why are the directors being given such a hard time for steering the ship through extremely choppy economic waters?
Besides, ã120m hardly qualifies as a cash bonanza, especially when chiefs at Citigroup, Bank of America and Bank of China - HSBCâÂÂs main competitors - are reportedly being rewarded with handsome incentive-based packages.
In some instances, however, the anger at fat cat pay-days is wholly justified. Take Adam Crozier, for example. The Royal Mail chief received more than ã3m in pay, pensions and incentives in the last financial year, despite overseeing the closure of 2,500 post offices around the UK. The sums donâÂÂt add up on this one.
The problem is that many critics believe big bonuses are only justified in an economic boom. But the best bosses - including those at HSBC - prove their mettle when the going gets tough.
Perhaps critics should reserve their wrath for the grossly valued, over-pampered Premier League soccer âÂÂstarsâÂ? whose finest efforts have resulted in EnglandâÂÂs non-attendance at this yearâÂÂs Euro 2008 Championships.
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