UpdateCharles Li’s 2016 bonus may be cut as HKEX turnover shrinks
Shrinking turnover, profit declines may mean smaller bonus for Hong Kong’s highest-paid regulator
Charles Li, the highest-paid among Hong Kong’s financial regulators, is likely to take home a smaller bonus cheque this year, sharing the gloom that has befallen the city’s brokers as the number of stocks that change hands everyday shrank 36 per cent to a three-year low.
A former JPMorgan investment banker, Li was paid HK$45 million last year, comprising HK$9 million in basic salary, HK$15 million in cash bonus, and HK$19.92 million in stock, according to the annual report of the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX). Li got a 27-per cent raise in the non-stock portion of his package last year, the report showed.
Li’s 2016 bonus may be cut by between 10 per cent and 20 per cent, according to Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, the Hong Kong lawmaker who represents the financial services sector.
“Every broker is facing the same fate this year” in Hong Kong, said Cheung, chairman of Christfund Securities Ltd. “2016 had been a very bad year in terms of turnover. Most brokers will only pay two weeks’ salary or a month’s salary as bonus.”
Hong Kong’s stock market had been having a dismal year. Average daily turnover shrank to a three-year low of HK$67.396 billion in mid-December, down 36 per cent from last year when HK$105.63 billion of shares changed hands every day.
