HSBC shareholders have waved through the lender’s proposal to remove an EU-imposed bonus cap, paving the way for it to hand bigger payouts to hundreds of top UK bankers, after a tense annual meeting dominated by questions over its pension policy and green finance. A resolution to replace the existing cap in its corporate rulebook limiting UK-based workers’ bonuses to twice a banker’s base salary received 99 per cent approval at HSBC’s meeting on Friday. The Asia-focused bank’s remuneration committee is now able to set an “appropriate cap where regulations allow”. The news comes six months after UK financial regulators announced they would remove the requirement for banks to cap variable pay at 100 per cent of base salary for so-called “material risk-takers”, or up to 200 per cent with shareholder approval. The cap was introduced in 2014 by the EU as part of efforts to limit excessive risk-taking following the financial crisis. HSBC argued that scrapping the cap, which still applies to its EU-based bankers, would “be particularly important in markets outside the EU where we compete with other international banks who do not have to comply with a cap on variable pay”. It added that the move would...