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Britain's four biggest banks are set to announce a near £5billion bonus bonanza.

HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland will reveal another round of rich rewards for staff over the coming weeks, alongside their annual results.

The overall payout is expected to be down on the £5.2bn which the four shelled out for 2014.

But the firms are still braced for a backlash, more than seven years on from when the banking crisis erupted.

Boards of the heavyweights lenders are currently finalising the exact levels of the bonus pots.

However, HSBC is expected to be the biggest payer, with just under £2.5bn of bonuses, only slightly down from 2014.

It comes days after Britain’s biggest bank was forced into a U-turn over a pay freeze.

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Staff were left furious after HSBC recently ruled out a wage rise.

But the bank, rocked by a number of scandals, last week reversed the decision.

In a staff memo seen by the Mirror, boss Stuart Gulliver said it had “very clear feedback” on the freeze.

Mr Gulliver, who earned £7.6million last year, said the bank had “decided to change the way these cost savings are achieved”.

But employees will ultimately pick up the bill as the money for the rise will come from this year’s bonus pot.

HSBC will kick off the banking reporting season when it announces its annual results on February 22.

Analysts predict profits surged 17% to £15.1bn.

Bank bonuses

Barclays, under new chief executive Jes Staley, is said to preparing to trim its bonus pot from £1.86billion to £1.75billion.

Taxpayer-saved Lloyds and RBS are expected to announce much smaller bonus pots in comparison.

According to Sky News, Lloyds is drawing up plans for £350million of bonuses, with RBS cutting its staff reward pot from £421million to under £400million.

RBS , still 73% owned by the taxpayer, is expected to announce a loss for the eighth year in a row.

It comes weeks after RBS revealed another £3.6billion of costs. The sum included £2bn for two different mis-selling scandals.

The four big banks are also expected to increase their estimated bill for the payment protection mis-selling scandal by around £5billion.