{"id":487259,"date":"2026-02-24T08:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/487259\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T08:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:08:09","slug":"standard-chartered-launches-1-5bn-buyback-weeks-after-finance-chiefs-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/487259\/","title":{"rendered":"Standard Chartered launches $1.5bn buyback weeks after finance chief\u2019s exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Standard Chartered has unveiled a $1.5bn share buyback just weeks after the bank\u2019s stock price was hit by the departure of its chief financial officer.<\/p>\n

The Asia-focused lender on Tuesday said pre-tax profits in the final three months of 2025 rose 2 per cent year on year to $814mn, below analyst expectations of $1.1bn, according to estimates compiled by StanChart.<\/p>\n

Bill Winters, who is the longest-serving chief executive of a UK bank, is set to outline a new strategy for StanChart<\/a> in May and see it through to completion, according to a person familiar with his thinking.<\/p>\n

Former chief financial officer Diego De Giorgi had been \u201cthe driving force\u201d behind the company\u2019s current \u201cfit for growth\u201d programme, according to Jefferies analysts. The strategy aimed to cut waste and find $1.5bn of savings by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

De Giorgi had been seen as in contention to succeed Winters before abruptly resigning this month<\/a> to join private capital group Apollo, a move that sent StanChart\u2019s London-listed stock down nearly 6 per cent in its worst single-day drop in absolute terms since President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cliberation day\u201d tariff announcements last April.<\/p>\n

Winters, who previously worked under Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan, became chief executive of StanChart in 2015. His retirement plans have long been a source of speculation in the market.<\/p>\n

StanChart\u2019s fourth-quarter profits were driven by 22 per cent and 13 per cent growth, respectively, in its investment products and insurance sales businesses, in a sign of wealth management\u2019s outsized role in banks operating in Asia.<\/p>\n

It said it took on 72,000 affluent new clients and $10bn of net new money during the quarter. Roughly a third of its clients are Chinese customers who hold money outside the mainland.<\/p>\n

StanChart\u2019s Hong Kong-listed shares rose nearly 3 per cent on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re absolutely not slowing down in terms of wealth momentum,\u201d said the group\u2019s head of investor relations Manus Costello, who said wealthy clients were increasingly buying investment products rather than just putting their money in deposits.<\/p>\n

But operating income from the bank\u2019s global markets division, which includes macro trading, fell 15 per cent year on year to $660mn, in a sign of growing caution.<\/p>\n

StanChart said its adjusted return on tangible equity, a measure of profitability, hit 14.7 per cent for the full year, exceeding its 13 per cent target a year early. The bank said it would issue a final dividend of 49 cents a share.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing robust growth in our larger markets, and structural shifts in global trade and investment play to our distinctive strengths serving our clients\u2019 cross-border and affluent banking needs,\u201d said Winters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-487259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}