Institutional shareholders in HSBC may let the bank off the hook on the contentious issue of executive pay this week, in a move that would echo the lessening of tensions between banks and their investors in the US, where a campaign for an advisory vote on pay has attracted less support than last year.

If shareholders were to back the UK bank's new proposals on pay arrangements at its annual general meeting this Friday, they would do so despite warnings from corporate governance advisers and activists.