HSBC bankers are particularly pessimistic about bonuses this year

Who feels that they are least likely to get paid for 2019? Despite intimations of a cut to the bonus pool at Deutsche Bank, the pessimism seems strongest at HSBC where just over a fifth of employees expect to receive no bonus this year, more than at any other bank.

The apparent gloom at Britain's biggest bank was unearthed in a survey of 620 peope's bonus expectations by salary benchmarking website Emolument.com, which gathered responses in November. 

 The results to the survey are shown in the charts below. While HSBC (followed by Deutsche Bank) staff are particularly apprehensive about receiving nothing at all, bankers at Barclays are confident they'll get paid something as a bonus this year. They may yet be wrong - Barclays has also intimated that pay could fall. 

Barclays' bankers don't seem to have ignored the executives messages entirely, however. As the second chart below shows, comparatively few of them think their bonuses will rise. By comparison, French banks' staff are unnaturally ebullient. 

HSBC didn't respond to a request to comment on bonus expectations at the bank. The apparent pessmism comes as interim CEO Noel Quinn is making layoffs ahead of the announcement of a new strategy next year. 

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