Standard Chartered shrugs off worst of financial crisis
Peter Sands, chief executive, acknowledged that "2009 is going to be challenging" but said the downturn in Asia, Africa and the Middle East will be "shorter and shallower than in the west" as they "do not face the structural de-leveraging afflicting western markets".
Warning against comparisons with the 1990s Asian crisis, he said: "Most countries have substantial foreign currency reserves and strong fiscal positions. This time most businesses have relatively conservative balance sheets."
The improvement in profits came despite a 74pc rise in bad debts to $1.3bn and an increase in credit market and private equity impairments from $57m to $469m. The consumer bank, which saw income drop "slightly below" the average run rate in the second half, faces difficult trading. Standard Chartered is planning "a radical reshaping of the business". The wholesale bank had a "very strong" January. Collins Stewart analyst Alex Potter described the results as "the best we have seen this season".
Standard Chartered increased its deposit book by $56bn, or 31pc, to $239bn last year as retail and corporate clients sought "a flight to quality", Mr Sands said. As a result, the loan-to-deposit ratio fell to an industry leading 75pc and the bank provided $19bn to the interbank lending markets.
Mr Sands added he is "very comfortable" with the capital position, which improved in the second half even before the $2.7bn rights issue. The core tier one ratio rose from 6.6pc to 7.6pc at the year-end.
Responding to speculation about a bid for Royal Bank of Scotland's Asian assets, he said: "You'd expect us to look at anything that is available, but our primary driver is organic growth." The bank is paying a final dividend of 42.32 cents on May 15, increasing the total for the year by 3.3pc to 61.62 cents. 
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