LONDON (Bloomberg) — HSBC Holdings Plc investors should scrutinise the bank's compensation plan before shareholders vote on the plan, the Association of British Insurers said.

The group, whose members own about 15 percent of all British publicly traded companies, issued an "amber alert" on the plan, which will be voted on at the London-based bank's annual meeting on May 28, ABI spokesman Erfan Hussain said.

"This is a matter for shareholder judgment, which is why it has been amber-topped," Hussain said by telephone today.

Europe's biggest bank disclosed in March it would pay Chief Executive Officer Michael Geoghegan a £300,000 ($448,000) allowance after he moved to Hong Kong from London. The bank abandoned a plan to increase Geoghegan's pay by as much as 40 percent after shareholders objected to the move, a person with knowledge of the plans said at the time.

Geoghegan's salary will be raised to "international levels" within the next 12 months, the bank said in its annual report. The executive has said he would give as much as £4 million of his bonus to charity.

Profit at HSBC, which didn't require a government bailout in the credit crisis, rose 1.7 percent to $5.83 billion in 2009.

HSBC spokesman Paul Harris declined to comment. Corporate governance advisers RiskMetrics Group Inc. said last week HSBC's pay plans had been "adequately explained".