Standard Chartered cut costs by £532m

Standard Chartered are to cut cost costs by £532m under a three-year overhaul, as the bank posted lower than expected annual profits.

Standard Chartered reported underlying full year pre-tax profits of £2.9bn and increase of 28% from 2017. They booked a 5.5% hike in statutory pre-tax profits to £1.9bn although growth was held back by £684m.

Bill Winters, group chief executive of Standard Chartered, said they will deliver improvements “through relentlessly focusing on where we have a distinct competitive advantage, attacking the residual causes of lower returns and ramping up innovation and productivity.”

He added, “We view the profound technology-driven changes in banking as an opportunity: we are big enough to be relevant to our most complex clients and partners, yet nimble enough to be a profitable disrupter.”

Shares in the group dropped 3% and in recent years stock has tumbled by 22% during 2018.

However, Gary Greenwood, a banking analyst at Shore Capital said, “Despite near-term economic uncertainties associated with the US/China trade wars and the withdrawal of quantitative easing, we believe that Standard Chartered’s exposure to relatively fast-growing emerging markets (Asia and Africa) provides a supportive backdrop to its recovery prospects, which we expect to drive an improvement in returns.”