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HSBC is ending its $38,000 school fee subsidy for new hires in Hong Kong, phasing out a longstanding perk that the UK bank had used to attract senior staff to the Asian financial hub.
Locally hired employees and those transferred from elsewhere would not be eligible for a subsidy to cover their children’s school fees, the bank’s Asia co-heads told staff in a memo on Thursday, according to an HSBC spokesperson.
Existing staff at the director level and above who currently receive the perk — which is capped at HK$300,000 ($38,000) a year — as well as those with a child born this year will still benefit, according to a person familiar with the change, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
Phasing out the perk in a city where many expatriates send their children to private international schools is the latest cost-cutting move by chief executive Georges Elhedery, who has sought to boost the bank’s competitiveness.
Since taking over in 2024, he has embarked on a restructuring that includes shutting HSBC’s equity capital markets division, folding its merger and acquisition advisory business in the US and Europe, and pulling out of some markets entirely.
The FT reported last year that the bank quietly ended its 160-year-old international manager programme, a scheme set up to develop the next generation of HSBC executives that counts former bank boss Stuart Gulliver as an alumnus.
The end of the fee incentive comes as HSBC continues to digest its $14bn take-private of Hong Kong lender Hang Seng, whose equivalent senior employees do not receive such a perk. London-based employees also do not receive the subsidy.
Fees for some of Hong Kong’s most prestigious secondary schools are notoriously high. Annual tuition at the American School is HK$242,700 ($31,000) for years 11 to 12, while the Chinese International School lists annual tuition fees of more than HK$350,000 for its final years.
“We are focused on rewarding our employees fairly and competitively,” said a spokesperson for HSBC. “Employees in Hong Kong have access to a broad and market-competitive total reward package.”