StanChart axes equities business, but ‘committed to S’pore’

SINGAPORE — The local office of London-based Standard Chartered said yesterday it remains committed to Singapore, following reports that the Asia-focused lender is shutting its institutional equities business and eliminating about 4,000 consumer-banking jobs.

The closure of its institutional equities business impacts about 200 jobs mainly in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, India and Singapore, a bank spokesperson told TODAY.

She declined to provide a breakdown for the layoffs in Singapore, saying only that the bank employs about 7,000 people here.

Some StanChart employees in Singapore had reported for work yesterday only to be escorted away, Reuters reported, while bankers in the equities division in Hong Kong were locked out of the office, indicating that they were not given prior notice of the layoffs.

“We came in this morning and were told the equity business was being shut down,” a woman who worked in research at the Singapore office told Reuters.

StanChart declined to comment on the Reuters report.

“As a bank that has operated in Singapore for more than 150 years, Standard Chartered remains committed to Singapore and will continue to support the growth aspirations of our clients here,” the bank spokesperson told TODAY.

StanChart, whose biggest shareholders include Temasek Holdings, will be one of the first global banks to completely exit the equity capital markets business, which involves underwriting stock offerings for companies.

The move forms part of a cost-cutting plan the bank announced last October that is targeting US$400 million (S$535 million) in savings this year, as it tries to bounce back after seeing its share price slump more than 40 per cent over the past two years.

StanChart’s shares rose 2.9 per cent at the close in Hong Kong yesterday and were up 2.7 per cent at mid-day in London.

Shutting the unprofitable cash equities, equity capital market and equity research operations would save about US$100 million next year, it said. The bank will keep its convertible bonds and equity derivatives businesses, and economic and fixed-income research.

In its retail banking division, StanChart said it has cut or announced the cutting of 2,000 jobs in the last three months and plans to axe a further 2,000 over the course of this year.

The cuts would represent about 5 per cent of the bank’s 86,000 employees and save US$200 million in costs this year. Agencies