A shot in the arm for Standard Chartered Bank clients as the bank, both national and international, continues to register impressive results, support organic growth and customers, and ensure it is well insulated from macro-economic and regulatory uncertainty.
Standard Chartered Plc, the parent body of Standard Chartered Bank Gambia, has delivered its first half result for the year, which shows the bank’s income and profit increased by 11 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.  
The Group produced diverse and resilient income growth across a number of products and geographies, driven by recent investment in new product capabilities and income streams.
“Standard Chartered PLC announced a ninth successive record first half of profit with income growing by 11 per cent to US$8.76 billion as profit climbed 17 per cent to US$3.64 billion,” a statement from the bank has said.
Customer deposits grew by 19 per cent or US$55 billion to US$343 billion, with the advances to deposits ratio remaining strong at 78.1 per cent. The Group continues to be highly liquid, with US$150 billion of cash or near cash assets.
“This is a very strong set of results - we have delivered record income and profit, grown our balance sheet, and raised our capital levels and dividend,” said the Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered, Peter Stands. “Our growth is resilient and diverse,” he added.
SCB Group Chief Executive says the bank is uniquely positioned at the heart of growing trade and investment flows between Asia, Africa and the Middle East, with their fast-expanding middle classes, “we continue to see significant opportunities for profitable growth across our network”.
The statement from the bank head office says its income growth is underpinned by a highly liquid, well funded and growing balance sheet.   
“The Group continues to focus on the strength of the balance sheet in order to support organic growth and support our customers, whilst ensuring we are well insulated from macro-economic and regulatory uncertainty,” the statement explained, adding: “We have grown customer deposits and lending, as we take market share across a wide range of products despite increasing competition in a number of our markets.”
Standard Chartered continues to support economic growth and development across the markets in its region of operation.  The bank’s total lending increased by 22 per cent and lending to Small Medium Enterprises climbed up 38 per cent.  The bank says it also supports homeowners, with mortgage lending, which increased by 19 per cent.
The quality of the bank’s customer lending continues to improve, with 67 per cent of the Wholesale lending book having a maturity of less than 12 months while the average loan-to-value on the mortgage book remains low at 49 per cent.
At a Group level, loan impairments fell by six per cent to US$412 million, driven by further significant falls in Consumer Banking loan impairments of 29 per cent year on year. Wholesale Banking loan impairments rose 46 per cent to $201 million in the same period.
“We remain disciplined and proactive in our approach to risk management,” the statement indicated.
Geographic performance has been broad and well spread. With the exception of India, all regions have shown good increases in income, with Hong Kong up 29 per cent, and Singapore 20 per cent higher.
Operating profit and income in India fell by 39 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, driven by rising interest rates and increasing competition resulting in falling net interest margins. Project and deal flow has slowed as business sentiment is impacted on the back of governance concerns in the market.
 India will be the third largest economy in the world by 2030, the bank notes, saying:
“Given our strength and competitive position, we are well-positioned for the upturn.”
Wholesale Banking and Consumer Banking saw increased business activity across a number of products and services, as the Group captured market share from its competitors.
Consumer Banking performed strongly in the first half with income and profit growing 15 per cent and 58 per cent respectively, as the transformation programme progresses well. Income growth was broad-based, with strong volume increases in mortgages, credit cards and personal loans, as the business also continued to attract strong deposit growth.
With a strong bias towards deposits, Standard Chartered well placed to benefit from an uptick in liability margins across several of our core markets. As Asia’s emerging middle class continues to expand, the high value segments of private banking, priority banking and SME banking all grew at more than 10 per cent.
Wholesale Banking saw client income grow by nine per cent to a record level of US$4.44 billion, while overall first half income and profit levels grew by eight per cent and five per cent respectively, also to record levels.  Client income now accounts for 82 per cent of Wholesale income.
The bank continues to support trade and investment flows to and from its markets across the globe, investing in new product and service sets to meet client demand, whilst further broadening the income base.
Trade finance income grew 11 per cent, foreign exchange by 19 per cent, with commodities and equities growing by 93 per cent, while the capital markets business grew income by 16 per cent, the statement indicated, adding: “Cash management volumes continued to build, up 26 per cent, with income up 33 per cent. Wholesale Banking continues to grow income and profit, whilst maintaining strong cost and risk controls, and with robust transaction pipelines for the second half of 2011.”