HONG KONG/LONDON ꟷ Standard Chartered’s full-year pretax profit rose 16 percent on robust performances from its global banking and wealth businesses, as it made progress on its shift to more fee-based income amid global trade tensions.
The lender also announced a $1.5-billion share buyback that it said would start imminently, and noted that its full-year dividend was up 65 percent from a year earlier.
United States President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on most of his country’s trading partners had led to fears that the bank, which is focused on both emerging markets and trade, would suffer. But it has, instead, benefited from the disruptions to global supply chains.
“We are seeing robust growth in our larger markets, and structural shifts in global trade and investment play to our distinctive strengths serving our clients’ cross-border and affluent banking needs,” Chief Executive Bill Winters said in a statement.
Wealth division income soars
StanChart also set out modest new guidance for statutory return on tangible equity, a key profitability metric, to be greater than 12 percent in 2026, compared with previous guidance of 13 percent on an underlying basis for last year.
The bank, which earns most of its revenue in Asia and Africa, reported pretax profit for the full year of $6.96 billion, narrowly missing the $7.2 billion average of 16 analyst estimates compiled by the bank.
Some of the miss was due to its full-year noninterest rate revenue, which came in at $9.71 billion, up 12.9 percent on the year but behind an average forecast of $9.95 billion.
The lender’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose more than 3 percent, outperforming a 2-percent drop for the broader market.
The bank’s wealth management division shone, with income soaring 24 percent in 2025 on double-digit growth in both its investment products and bancassurance businesses.
Its global banking division saw a 15-percent rise in income, driven by higher business volumes and increased capital markets activity.
Boost from supply chain turmoil
As supply chains reorganize, the bank has particularly benefited from the trend of Chinese corporates going out to boost their overseas presence and offshore investments, Manus Costello, the bank’s global head of investor relations, told Reuters.
Business volumes between China and a cluster of Southeast Asian countries grew notably by 20 percent last year, he said, while volumes between China and the Middle East, and between China and Africa were up 18 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
Supply chain confusion and disruptions are likely to persist after the US Supreme Court struck down a huge swath of tariffs imposed by Trump.
Succession plans at the bank are in the spotlight following the recent abrupt departure of former chief financial officer Diego De Giorgi, who left to join asset manager Apollo Global Management after less than three years in the role.
He was widely regarded by investors and analysts as the leading internal candidate to succeed Winters, 64, who has been in the role for a decade and is now the longest-serving CEO for a major British lender.
De Giorgi’s exit removes one of the key architects of the lender’s “Fit for Growth” cost-cutting program, which is due for a critical review in May.