HSBC is facing surging staff costs in fast-growing economies, including China, India and Brazil, as it ploughs money into these markets to offset more difficult conditions in the west.

Disclosures published alongside the bank’s annual results showed that top executives outside the UK were paid almost double their British-based colleagues last year. A group of senior employees known as “code staff” received an average of $1.2m in salaries and bonuses in the UK, compared with $2.3m for similar level staff overseas.

Unveiling a 6 per cent fall in Britain’s biggest bank’s underlying pre-tax profits to $17.7bn, Stuart Gulliver, chief executive, said the bank had spent an additional $1.1bn hiring staff across key emerging regions last year. The increased wage bill – which reflected salary rises of 10 to 15 per cent – helped drive up total expenses by 10 per cent.