Standard Chartered Plc launches an all-out effort to save the bank from further damage due to its high costs. As of the moment, they are currently trying to cut a total of $400 million worth of costs.
As reported by Reuters, a part of this restructure program is to shift the bank’s focus to managing its wealthier customers in Asia, Middle East and Africa instead of a mass market approach.
"We're steering away from clients who just want a personal loan to those who'll buy multiple products", said Karen Fawcett, the global head of retail clients at StanChart, in an interview last Monday.
Recently, Bloomberg Business reported that StanChart became one of the worst performers in the 45-member Bloomberg Europe 500 Banks index as its shares dropped by 26% over the last 12 months. This prompted Chief Executive Peter Sands to announce his plan in revamping the bank’s program. This included a pledge to eliminate equities trading and slash 4000 consumer bank jobs to cut costs which happened last month.
South Korea and Pakistan are included among the markets that were cut from the bank’s services. More bank jobs are to be expected this coming year. Part of the pledge was also to focus more on the bank’s wealth management services.
However, Sands's efforts might prove to be a last effort as the bank already announced last January 26 that it has hired executive searcher firm Egon Zehnder not only to find Sands’s successor but also replacements for other senior executives in the UK based bank.
This puts more pressure on Sands’s shoulders to revive the bank’s performance after a turbulent two years.
Meanwhile, there are other efforts made to reel in new clients for StanChart, especially in Asia where they have already established a credible base. This includes a rollout of an iPad-based platform for recruiting 10 new markets this year and another 10 new markets in 2016.
There’s also an effort to open desk in Dubai for Japanese corporate clients wishing to expand their businesses in the Middle East. The bank expects about 200 more job losses this year to save $100 million in 2016.
