Zero bonuses for researchers at HSBC?

More bad news for equity researchers. HSBC's global head of equity research says they don't need to be paid.

Graham Copley is reported in the Financial Times today as saying that analysts don't need compensating because of the often 'worthless' research notes they hastily produce following company announcements.

In internal emails circulated within HSBC's equity research departments, Copley is understood to have bemoaned the fact that the firm's weekly research output had fallen, and urged managers to push their teams harder.

Given that HSBC has outsourced some of its research to India, Copley apparently said researchers couldn't argue that a lack of resources was hindering their output.

HSBC's analysts have reason to be concerned. In the downturn of 2001 HSBC switched to paying its equity analysts entirely in the bank's stock, a move that was reversed only in 2004.