Standard Chartered to hand back £3.95 billion to shareholders as profits rise
Standard Chartered, a banking giant, has announced plans to give money back to shareholders as it joins the list of banks revealing higher profits.
The bank, which focuses on Asia, has started a one billion US dollar (£800 million) share buyback and aims to give about five billion dollars (£3.95 billion) back to shareholders over the next three years. Over the past year, Standard Chartered's share price has fallen by a fifth, so it's been working hard to increase its value and give money back to investors.
This news comes as the company reported a pre-tax profit of 5.7 billion dollars (£4.5 billion) for 2023, which is up 22% compared to the previous year. In recent days, other banks like NatWest and Lloyds have also announced stronger profits.
On Friday, Standard Chartered said that it was helped by a higher operating income, which went up 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 that its income-to-cost ratio has improved because of "good cost discipline". The bank also gained from a decrease in loan impairments, thanks to more stability in the Chinese real estate sector.
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Bill Winters, the head of the group, stated: "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."
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