LONDON (ShareCast) - Five directors at HSBC could share a £120m jackpot over the next three years in a controversial pay scheme to be debated at a shareholders’ meeting this week, reports the Sunday Times.

The payout, a mixture of cash and shares, would be awarded in full only if the directors at Britain’s biggest bank hit tough profit performance targets significantly ahead of what City analysts are forecasting. The highest paid would be Mike Geoghegan, HSBC’s chief executive. His basic salary is £1m, but under the new scheme he could benefit from a bonus up to four times his salary and a long-term incentive plan (LTIP) that could be equivalent to seven times salary — a potential £12m a year

City workers have enjoyed their biggest ever bonuses, despite the turbulent economic conditions, new figures show. Bankers and financial traders were awarded £12.6bn in the first three months of this year alone, according to wage figures held by the Office for National Statistics. The figures are a massive leap from previous bonus payments and smash last year's record for the same period by more than £500m. In 2006, over the same period, £9.7bn was paid in bonuses, reports the Sunday Independent.

Tate & Lyle, the sugar and sweeteners group, is looking at a possible sale of its £870m pension scheme. The firm has been conducting an unofficial auction for several weeks, according to industry sources. Rothesay Life, the pension buyout firm set up by Goldman Sachs, is understood to be interested, as are Pension Corporation, Paternoster and Legal & General, reports the Sunday Times.

Meanwhile, Cable & Wireless, the telecommunications company, is understood to be "weeks away" from completing a deal to offload risks associated with its £2bn pension fund. The company is believed to be close to drawing up a shortlist of potential bidders for the fund, writes the Sunday Telegraph.

ITV has launched an unprecedented attack on media regulator Ofcom over the accusation that it used a loophole to avoid a multi-million pound fine relating to a vote-rigging scandal, reports the Observer.

British Land and Land Securities, the FTSE 100 real estate giants, are mulling bids for Wilson Bowden Developments, the commercial property arm of the heavily indebted housebuilder Barratt Developments.The business could fetch more than £250m, writes the Sunday Independent.

Less than 5% of homes in the UK will change hands this year, according to property research company Hometrack. This will represent the lowest level of activity in the housing market since the early 1990s, reports the Sunday Independent.

Adair Turner, one of Labour’s most favoured government advisers, is in pole position to be named as the new chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the City watchdog. Lord Turner, the former CBI director-general who clashed with Gordon Brown over pensions policy, is expected to be appointed in the next 10 days. The move would bring an end to a drawn-out hunt to find a successor to Sir Callum McCarthy, who is due to step down in September, writes the Sunday Times.

Leisure group Inspired Gaming, which operates fruit machines and betting terminals, has put itself up for sale after receiving a number of approaches. The business, headed by joint chief executives Luke Alvarez and Norman Crowley, has hired Global Leisure Partners (GLP), a specialist corporate-finance firm, to advise on the takeover interest and to gauge the seriousness of the initial offers, reports the Sunday Times.

Scottish Widows faces a legal claim for up to £1bn in compensation over allegations that it gave “negligent” advice to about 100 company pension schemes. The life assurer, owned by Lloyds TSB, has been accused of encouraging the schemes to give up guarantees that protected against the risk of pensioners living for longer than expected in 1999 and 2000, writes the Sunday Times.

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