Banking giant HSBC has made a U-turn on plans to freeze staff pay.
The lender will now fund pay rises for 2015 from its variable bonus pool for 2016 after "listening to feedback".
But the bank will still enforce a recruitment freeze across its global business in a bid to cut costs.
Chief executive Stuart Gulliver told staff about the plans in a memo.
He stressed that not all staff would receive a pay rise in light of the change of tack.
He said he had "listened to this feedback and have as a result decided to change the way these cost savings are to be achieved".
He added: "We will therefore proceed with the pay rises as originally proposed by managers as part of the 2015 pay review, noting that, consistent with prior years, not all staff will receive a pay rise."
The bank put pay rises on hold last month as it looked to drive down costs in the face of mounting economic pressures driven by low interest rates, the tumbling oil price and a slowdown in China.
In statement, the bank said it has been targeting "significant cost reductions by the end of 2017".
The Bank of England cast the spotlight back on to bankers' pay in January when it announced proposals to cap or scrap outstanding bonuses from when they move to a new firm.
It wants to clamp down on the practice that sees lenders buy out bonuses of a banker who moves to a new firm from their previous bank.
Meanwhile, HSBC is reportedly set to announce plans to keep its headquarters in the UK after a high-profile and lengthy review.
It is understood the decision could come as soon as this week, ahead of its annual results on February 22.
HSBC's review was announced in April last year by chairman Douglas Flint at the bank's annual meeting.
It cited increasingly onerous British regulatory conditions and the UK bank levy introduced in 2010 - a tax based on the size of any UK-based bank's global balance sheet.
The head office of HSBC's UK retail bank is being relocated from London to Birmingham by 2019 amid the new rules and HSBC is said to be considering a sale of the business, which was known as the Midland before being swallowed up by HSBC in 1992. HSBC has 48,000 of its 257,000 staff in the UK.
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