Standard Chartered to hand billions to shareholders as profits rise

The company reported a pre-tax profit of 5.7 billion dollars (£4.5 billion) for 2023, up 22% against the previous year.

Standard Chartered has become the latest banking firm to post higher profits (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Archive)

Banking giant Standard Chartered has laid out plans to hand cash back to shareholders as it became the latest lender to reveal higher profits.

The Asia-focused bank launched a one billion US dollar (£800 million) share buyback and plans to return around five billion dollars (£3.95 billion) to shareholders over the next three years.

Standard Chartered, which has seen its share price drop a fifth over the past year, has been under pressure to improve its value and return cash to investors.

It came as the company reported a pre-tax profit of 5.7 billion dollars (£4.5 billion) for 2023, up 22% against the previous year.

In recent days, a number of other banks including NatWest and Lloyds have also revealed stronger profits.

Standard Chartered said on Friday that it was boosted by higher operating income, which rose 10% to 17.4 billion dollars (£13.7 billion) for 2023.

The firm said it benefited “not only from rising interest rates but also encouraging underlying business momentum” over the past year.

It also said its income-to-cost ratio has improved amid “good cost discipline”.

The bank also benefited from a decline in loan impairments, amid increased stability in the Chinese real estate sector.

Bill Winters, group chief executive, said: “We produced strong results in 2023, continuing to demonstrate the value of our franchise and delivering our financial objective of a 10% RoTE (return on tangible equity) for the year.

“We will now build on this success, taking action to deliver sustainably higher returns with a focus on driving income growth and improving operational leverage.”