Standard Chartered Declares $3.12bn Profit In Six Months

Standard Chartered Plc has announced profit before tax of $3.12 billion for the first six months of  2010.

According to the bank, it also recorded ten per cent growth in both earnings and dividend per share.

Standard Chartered in a statement added that it maintained income of eight per cent growth in Consumer Banking and 18 per cent in Wholesale Banking client income. 

Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered, Peter Sands said, “these results demonstrate once again our commitment to delivering consistent and sustained performance. This is not a bounce back, a sharp recovery in profits, it is simply another set of record results, continuing a trajectory that now extends over more than seven years.”

Sands explained that Standard Chartered businesses enter the second half with good momentum, adding that ”we remain extremely watchful about the global outlook and are managing the business very dynamically. We are investing now in order to grasp the huge long-term opportunities across our markets. The bank is in great shape, has good momentum, and is superbly positioned for the future.”

Speaking further, Sands said, ‘momentum remains strong in both businesses. As the East rebounds from the crisis, with very strong growth in many of our markets, we saw this reflected in our business and transaction volumes. We continue to take market share from competitors in a number of key products, including mortgages, deposits, corporate finance, trade finance and cash management.”

He said as the economic environment has improved, the Bank has taken a deliberate step to increase investment to take advantage of the prospects for long-term growth in our markets.

Meanwhile, according to the bank, expenses rose eight per cent on the first half of last year, “as we hired staff and invested in branches, infrastructure projects and in building product capability.”

It explained that within the period under review, the group continued to focus on the basics of good banking, keepinga tight grip on costs and risk control and maintaining a liquid and conservative balance sheet.

“The Group is strongly capitalised and generated organic equity of more than $2 billion in the first half of 2010, with our core tier 1 capital ratio rising to 9.0 per cent, while total capital remains strong at 15.5 per cent. The advances to deposits ratio improved further to 76.2 per cent and the Group continues to attract deposits.

“The bank continues to maintain a conservative funding structure, with all debt maturity requirements for 2010 pre-funded, alongside the majority of those for 2011.

“In line with the geographic footprint of the bank across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, we have no direct exposure to Southern European sovereign debt. Income by markets remained well spread, with no individual market contributing more than 15 per cent of income.