LONDON (Bloomberg) ? HSBC Holdings Plc. employees plan to strike today in Britain's first national bank walkout in eight years, protesting a new pay plan as Chairman John Bond tries to cut expenses to counter a slowdown in UK consumer banking.

Protesters will cause "widespread disruption" to HSBC and picket outside the bank's annual shareholders meeting in London when Bond addresses investors, the Amicus union said yesterday.

HSBC bought Bermuda's largest bank, The Bank of Bermuda in 2004.

Bond, 63, is reducing costs after HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, reported the slowest earnings growth in 2 1/2 years during the second half of 2004. Barclays Plc., Britain's third-largest bank, yesterday predicted that loan losses this year will swell amid "signs of strain" in the UK consumer- lending market.

"Thousands of HSBC staff will be striking tomorrow to protest against the derisory pay offer that is being imposed on them," Dave Fleming, head of finance at Amicus, said in a statement.

The new pay contract will leave ten percent of employees without any increase at all and more than 40 percent with raises that are below the rate of inflation, the union said. HSBC says only one percent of staff won't get an increase and bonus.

The protest will be the first nationwide work stoppage at a British bank since employees of Barclays went on strike over pay in 1997. Employees at Lloyds TSB Group Plc., the UK's No. 5 bank, have also been asked to vote on protest action that may include a strike over a pay dispute, its main employee union said on May 18.

UK unions are stepping up pressure on lenders, which last year reported record earnings. Banks are resisting pay demands as slowing house price inflation and five interest rate increases since November 2003 damp lending and boost loan defaults.

HSBC's UK business accounts for about a third of costs and generates only a quarter of profit. The bank has cut about 6,500 positions in Britain over the past two years, shifting some jobs to Asia where labour is cheaper.

"At present, HSBC does not expect to close any branches" because of the strike, said spokesman Richard Lindsay in an e- mailed statement yesterday. "The bank does not expect any disruption to telephone, internet or ATM banking services."

Bond tomorrow may also be grilled by shareholders about an executive pay plan that may give directors bonuses equal to as much as seven-times salary. London-based Pensions & Investment Research Consultants Ltd. has advised clients controlling pension assets of about 500 billion ($915 billion) to reject HSBC's pay proposals.

Bond's total compensation rose 69 percent to 3.65 million, from 2.15 million a year earlier, according to the bank's annual report.

Shares of HSBC have declined one percent this year, making it the second-best performing stock on the ten-member FTSE 350 Banks index, which dropped 4.4 percent in the period. HSBC has a market value of 96.7 billion pounds.