Sri Lanka’s HSBC fires five senior managers for figure-fudging

Jun 20, 2016 (LBO) – HSBC Sri Lanka sacked five senior managers following an investigation into allegations that they fudged incentives-linked performance figures, a media report said.

“HSBC Sri Lanka has made important senior management changes following an internal investigation,” a spokesperson said, according to a Sunday Times report. Among the terminated employees were two Relationship Managers in the Corporate Banking team.

Two others, the Head of Human Resource and Head of Compliance, were asked to resign over separate irregularities, the report said. “We can’t comment on individuals but we can confirm a number of executives have left the bank as a result of this investigation,” the report said. HSBC has performance-driven remuneration schemes. It sets targets that are linked to incentives, particularly annual bonuses.

The Corporate Banking team also carries out its activities on this equation, actively canvassing patronage from the business world in a bid to boost bank revenues.



It was typical for the HSBC Corporate Banking team to overachieve on their targets in the first quarters of a financial year. But since it did not entail any additional benefit, they had contrived to spread out this increase — or to defer it — to the first quarter of the new financial year, thereby enabling them to kick off that year with a cushion, the report said.