StanChart sets US$200b target in earnings push

Reuters

Standard Chartered (2888) will target US$200 billion (HK$1.56 trillion) in new assets and double-digit growth in income from its wealth business over the next five years, as part of its wider strategy to shift to higher fee-earning businesses.

The Asia-focused bank wants to expand in serving wealthy Chinese and Indian clients who have assets offshore or cross-border needs, the bank's Wealth and Retail Banking chief executive Judy Hsu told reporters yesterday.

StanChart's assets under management sourced from wealthy Chinese and Indians with global needs rose by about 40 and 20 percent, respectively, in the 12 months ending September, its data shows.

The bank sees good growth opportunities particularly as clients look to move businesses out of China in light of tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump when he returns to the White House in January, Hsu said.

"If you think about Trump 2.0, which potentially can bring on more tariffs, I think that 'China plus one' will gather even more momentum," she said, referring to Chinese firms shifting manufacturing offshore to blunt the impact of US trade barriers against China.

"We're seeing a lot of our [China] onshore clients - the small and medium enterprises - looking to go outside of China."

StanChart aims to boost its team of relationship managers by 50 percent by 2028, according to plans unveiled on Tuesday, as well as upgrade branches and invest in technology to win new clients.

Meanwhile, globalization is being reset by Trump's trade tariff threats and worries about regulatory arbitrage between Wall Street banks and their international rivals, bankers said.

Trump last month said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10 percent tariff on goods from China, on the first day of his second term, raising concerns about global trading relationships.

However, Trump's proposed tariffs would not dramatically hurt BBVA's business in Mexico, the Spanish bank's Chief Executive Onur Genc told the FT Global Banking Summit in London.

BBVA is among the most exposed foreign lenders to any shift in Mexico's competitive standing and economic growth following the proposed tariffs, with BBVA Mexico the biggest bank in the market and delivering 47 percent of the Spanish group's income in 2023.

In other news, European Central Bank board member Piero Cipollone said US import duties could lower economic growth and inflation in the 20 countries sharing the euro.