By Scott Murdoch and Selena Li

SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) - HSBC's headcount fell 3% last year and its staff bonus pool hardly changed as a new CEO sharpened focus on costs and initiated sweeping restructuring of the Asia-focused lender, showed its 2024 financial report issued on Wednesday.

The bank's bonus cash pool reached $3.80 billion in 2024 versus $3.77 billion a year earlier, the report showed.

HSBC posted annual profit that beat market estimates, helped by increased revenue in wealth and markets businesses. It also set stiff cost-cutting targets under CEO Georges Elhedery's push to boost returns with increasing attention on Asia where the London-headquartered bank earns the bulk of its profit.

Elhedery received 5.4 million pounds ($6.8 million) in total compensation for 2024, fattened by an annual incentive applied after Britain's removal of a cap on bonuses for top bankers.

The CEO could earn as much as 15.2 million pounds ($19.2 million) in the current year, with more than half comprised of the variable or bonus component, the report showed.

HSBC shareholders in May backed a resolution to lift a cap on bonuses for its top UK bankers after Britain axed a policy limiting payouts inherited from the European Union.

Banks including Barclays, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have substantially raised caps on bonuses over the past year for their top UK-based bankers.

HSBC's report also showed its global workforce totalled 220,928 across its businesses versus 227,552 in 2023 and 232,642 in 2022. There was a 5.5% reduction in staff at its wealth and personal banking business.

The banks' salary and benefits bill reached $20.15 billion for 2024, up slightly from $19.62 billion one year earlier.

As part of the restructuring, the bank in October said it would combine some of its commercial and investment banking businesses and had installed a new leadership structure.

The bank cut 40 investment bankers in Hong Kong on Monday, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

($1 = 0.7927 pounds)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Christopher Cushing)