While other international financial institutions continue to report huge losses, Standard Chartered yesterday announced that its operating profits rose 13% in 2008, to $4.5 billion. A strong focus on Asia is a major factor behind the good news.
Other key figures for the latest financial year include a 26% increase in operating income to $13.9 billion, and a 19% gain in profit before tax to $4.8 billion. The normalised cost-to-income ratio was 56% in 2008, the same as it was in 2007.
By the time the results came out, at the beginning of the working day in London, there had been a full day of trading in Hong Kong, during which time the...