Share-Based Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

Employee Stock Purchase Plans The HSBC Holdings Savings-Related Share Option Plan (the “HSBC Sharesave Plan”) allows eligible employees to enter into savings contracts of one, three or five year lengths, with the ability to decide at the end of the contract term to either use their accumulated savings to purchase HSBC ordinary shares at a discounted option price or have the savings plus any interest repaid in cash. The Sharesave Plan was not offered to employees during the enrollment period in 2013, and therefore, no options were granted. During 2012 and 2011, employees were able to save up to $400 per month over all their HSBC Sharesave Plan savings contracts. Compensation expense in 2013, 2012 and 2011 was insignificant.

Restricted Share Plans Subsequent to our acquisition by HSBC, key employees have been provided awards in the form of restricted share rights (“RSRs”), restricted shares (“RSs”) and restricted share units (“RSUs”) under the HSBC Group Share Plan. These shares have been granted subject to either time-based vesting or performance-based vesting, typically over three to five years. Currently, share-based awards granted to U.S. employees are granted in the form of RSUs. Annual awards to employees in 2013, 2012 and 2011 are generally subject to three-year time-based graded vesting. Also during 2011 we made a one-time grant of performance-based awards, which represented a significant portion of the shares awarded in 2011, that are subject to performance-based vesting periods ranging from 12 to 30 months. We also issue a small number of off-cycle grants each year, primarily for reasons related to recruitment of new employees. Compensation expense for these restricted share plans totaled $4 million, $9 million and $10 million in 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. As of December 31, 2013, future compensation cost related to grants which have not yet fully vested is approximately $13 million. This amount is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 1.51 years.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for compensation-related costs for equity-based compensation, which may include disclosure of policies, compensation plan details, allocation of equity compensation, incentive distributions, equity-based arrangements to obtain goods and services, deferred compensation arrangements, employee stock ownership plan details and employee stock purchase plan details.

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