Standard Chartered has pledged to double investment in its fast-growing wealth management business as the bank raised its outlook after a forecast-beating third quarter.
The London-listed group, which makes most of its revenues in Asia, posted a 37% jump in underlying pre-tax profits to a better-than-expected 1.81 billion US dollars (£1.39 billion) for the three months to September 30.
On a statutory basis, profits nearly tripled to 1.72 billion dollars (£1.32 billion) from 633 million dollars (£486 million) a year earlier.
The group upgraded its forecast for full-year operating income growth for the second time in four months, saying it is set to increase “towards 10%” in 2024.
This is up from previous guidance for growth of more than 7% given in July, when it last upped its outlook for the key performance measure.
Shares in Stan Chart lifted 3% in morning trading on Wednesday as it also said it would increase shareholder returns further, to eight billion dollars (£6.1 billion) in 2024 to 2026, up from the previous forecast for at least five billion dollars (£3.8 billion).
Bill Winters, group chief executive of Stan Chart, vowed to double investment in its wealth arm to around 1.5 billion dollars (£1.2 billion) over five years, ramping up spending on relationship managers and investment advisers.
The firm is also pressing ahead with a restructure, reining in its mass retail business and simplifying the group.
It said it would look to sell off some smaller businesses “where the strategic rationale is not sufficiently compelling” over the next 18 months to two years to help it refocus on growth areas.
Mr Winters said: “We are doubling investment in our consistently fast-growing and high-returning wealth management business, and we will continue to reshape our mass retail business to focus on developing our pipeline of future affluent and international banking clients.
“In our CIB (corporate and investment banking) business, we are taking actions to focus on larger global clients who rely on our unique cross-border capabilities.
“These actions will further simplify our business and help us to generate higher quality growth.”
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Stan Chart’s results shows “banks keep delivering” after rival HSBC also beat expectations on Tuesday.
But he added: “Longer-term question marks remain about the sprawling footprint and how Standard Chartered delivers continued loan and deposit growth in challenging markets.”
