HSBC's fourth quarter results are out.
If you work in the Global Banking & Markets (GB&M) business they were not good. In fact, in the words of Investec analysts they were "exceptionally weak." Revenues fell 29% in GB&M quarter on quarter. Costs rose, targets were jettisoned, and pay is being punished accordingly.
There are some plus points, however.
The average pay for a material risk taker at HSBC was $1m (£650k) in 2014. This compared to $1.5m for code staff in 2013. That looks like a big drop - except we're not comparing like with like. Code staff were a smaller and more tightly defined group. This may explain why they were higher paid.
19% earn $1m to $2m. 2% earn more than $2m.