Standard Chartered issued results, including those for its wealth business. It also spoke about its desire to continue developing its China operations.

Standard Chartered, the UK-listed bank earning most of its revenues in Asia and Africa, announced last Friday that its full-year 2023 profit, attributable to shareholders and on a reported basis, rose 18 per cent year-on-year to $3.017 billion. 

Operating income rose 10 per cent to $18.02 billion; operating expenses rose to $11.55 billion, up 6 per cent, and credit impairment fell to $508 million, down by 39 per cent from 2022’s level.

Goodwill and other impairment, however, rose to $1.008 billion, rising 130 per cent. 

As a result of the overall shape of results, Standard Chartered’s cost/income ratio narrowed to 64.1 per cent, falling 280 basis points; the net interest margin widened to 1.67 per cent, up by 26 basis points, reflecting higher interest rates.

At the end of December 2023, the bank’s Common Equity Tier 1 ratio was 14.1 per cent, little changed from a year ago. It had a liquidity coverage ratio of 145 per cent. (The ratio is designed to ensure that banks hold a sufficient reserve of high-quality liquid assets so that they can weather liquidity stress lasting 30 calendar days.)

Affluence and wealth
Examining results by segment, Standard Chartered said it increased the total number of affluent clients to 2.3 million. “This helped drive significantly higher levels of net new money in 2023, with net inflows of $29 billion, up 50 per cent year-on-year, and deliver 24 per cent growth in income from this client segment,” Bill Winters, group CEO, said.

In 2023, wealth management product operating income rose to $1.796 billion from $1.796 billion a year ago.

Within the wealth figure, bancassurance income rose 17 per cent on a constant currency basis, although wealth management lending fell 15 per cent. Wealth assets under management held broadly stable, it said.

The bank said it is ahead of its 2024 target to transform profitability in consumer, private and business banking. It has achieved its 60 per cent cost-to-income target one year ahead of plan, with a nine-percentage point improvement in 2023. 

Winters talked about China, saying that Standard Chartered has “continued to seize the China opportunity, with our China-related business performing well, despite post-Covid domestic recovery tracking below expectations...We set a target of doubling the operating profit before tax of our onshore and offshore China business by the end of 2024 and we almost achieved that in 2023, generating $1.3 billion.”