Economic growth in China and Hong Kong helped Standard Chartered to an encouraging first-quarter result. The bank also attracted significant amounts of net new money.
Standard Chartered had a pretax profit of $1.26 billion in the first quarter, up from $1.05 billion in the same period of 2017, the bank said on Wednesday. Growth in the greater China region and in North Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, as well as retail banking in general boosted its profit.
«This encouraging start to the year shows that we are firmly on the path laid out in February that will take us above an 8 percent return on equity in the medium term,» said Bill Winters, CEO at Standard Chartered.
Successful Relationship Managers
The addition of senior relationship managers helped the bank attract more than $700 million of net new money in the first three months of 2018. Income from the private banking division hit $144 million, a 23 percent increase from a year ago.
The regional CEO for Asean and South Asia and head of commercial and private banking, Anna Marrs, in March said she would leave the bank in September, as finews.asia reported.
