Standard Chartered (STAN.L) - Company Research

Last Updated: 10 August 2026

Standard Chartered is a London-headquartered bank that does almost none of its business in Britain. Roughly three-quarters of its income comes from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and its franchise is built on following corporate and affluent-individual money as it moves across borders in those regions. That footprint made the bank a persistent underperformer for most of the decade after the financial crisis. It has also made it one of the sharpest turnaround stories in European banking over the last three years: return on tangible equity reached 14.7 per cent in 2025 on an underlying basis, clearing a three-year plan a full year early, and the first half of 2026 delivered record income, record profit before tax and a sixth consecutive buyback. This report sets out what the business actually is, what the filings say, and what could break the story. It contains no analyst ratings and no price targets.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Company	Standard Chartered PLC
Listings	London Stock Exchange (STAN) and Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2888)
Share class	Ordinary shares of US$0.50 each, ISIN GB0004082847
Sector	Banks — international corporate, investment and wealth banking
Share price	2,195p (previous close, 10 August 2026)
Market cap	£48.6bn (approximately US$65.6bn at GBP/USD 1.3490)
Revenue (FY2025 underlying operating income)	US$20,894m
Reported profit before tax (FY2025)	US$6,963m
Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders (FY2025, reported)	US$4,558m
Reported basic EPS (FY2025)	195.4 cents
Dividend per share (FY2025)	61 cents
CET1 ratio (30 June 2026)	14.2%
Total assets (30 June 2026)	US$993,406m
CEO / Leadership	Bill Winters CBE, Group Chief Executive; Maria Ramos, Group Chair; Manus Costello, Group Chief Financial Officer (confirmed July 2026)
Employees	81,892 at 31 December 2025 (81,832 full-time equivalent)
Markets of operation	55
Registered office	1 Basinghall Avenue, London EC2V 5DD
Next scheduled results	Q3 2026 results, 28 October 2026

Market capitalisation, share price and the 52-week range in this report are taken from market data as at 10 August 2026. All financial statement figures are taken from Standard Chartered's own results announcements, Half Year Report and Annual Report.

2. Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Returns have structurally re-rated: underlying return on tangible equity moved from 11.7 per cent in 2024 to 14.7 per cent in 2025, and the reported figure reached 17.6 per cent in the first half of 2026, so the bank is no longer earning below its cost of capital.
• Wealth is the growth engine and it is compounding: affluent assets under management reached US$473bn at 30 June 2026, Wealth Solutions income grew 38 per cent in the first half, and roughly US$84bn of affluent net new money has been gathered over six quarters against a US$200bn target running to 2028.
• Capital is being returned aggressively: shares in issue have fallen from 3,057m at the end of 2021 to 2,189m at 30 June 2026, the 2025 dividend rose 65 per cent to 61 cents, the 2026 interim rose 66 per cent to 20.4 cents, and a further US$1.0bn buyback started on 30 July 2026.
• The network is genuinely hard to replicate: presence in 55 markets, deep local licences across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and a transaction banking business that earned US$6,005m in 2025 give the bank a cross-border payments and trade franchise that a domestic competitor cannot assemble.
• Cost discipline is producing operating leverage: the reported cost-to-income ratio improved to 54.6 per cent in the first half of 2026 from 57.3 per cent, and management has targeted roughly 57 per cent excluding notable items by 2028 against 63 per cent in 2025.

Bear Case

• The income mix is rate-sensitive: net interest margin slipped to 2.03 per cent in 2025 and 2.04 per cent in the first half of 2026, Payments and Liquidity income fell 10 per cent in 2025 on lower rates, and much of the recent growth has come from markets and wealth fees that are more cyclical than spread income.
• Credit and geopolitical concentration is real: impairments rose to US$446m in the first half of 2026 from US$336m, including precautionary overlays for the Middle East conflict, and the bank carries named overlays for Bangladesh, Korea and a potential sovereign downgrade across higher-risk footprint markets.
• Litigation exposure remains open-ended: a Singapore claim seeking US$2.7bn and an Australian action asserting losses of up to US$4.81bn are both live and unprovided, on the basis that the accounting threshold for a provision has not been met.
• The plan is long-dated and depends on execution: the roughly 18 per cent return on tangible equity ambition sits in 2030, the cost target in 2028, and delivery relies on a restructuring that includes reducing corporate functions roles by more than 15 per cent by 2030.

3. Business Segments

Standard Chartered reported four segments in its 2025 accounts. From the first half of 2026 the Ventures segment ceased to be separately reportable and was folded into Central and other items, with comparatives re-presented. The table below uses the FY2025 underlying operating income split, which is the last full-year disclosure on the four-segment basis.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Corporate & Investment Banking	59.3% (US$12,394m)	Corporate, financial institution and sovereign clients across the network. Three product lines: Transaction Services (US$6,005m in 2025), Global Markets (US$3,863m) and Global Banking (US$2,229m). Underlying profit before tax of US$5,875m on risk-weighted assets of US$175.9bn.
Wealth & Retail Banking	40.5% (US$8,464m)	Private, Priority and Personal Banking plus small-business banking. Wealth Solutions earned US$3,086m in 2025, Deposits and Mortgages US$4,080m, unsecured lending US$1,080m. Segment return on tangible equity of 25.5 per cent, the highest in the group.
Ventures	2.0% (US$415m)	SC Ventures plus the two majority-owned digital banks, Mox in Hong Kong and Trust Bank in Singapore. Digital banks contributed US$195m and SC Ventures US$220m, the latter flattered by a US$238m gain on the sale of Solv India. Loss before tax of US$167m.
Central & other items	-1.8% (US$379m negative)	Treasury, the corporate centre, associate holdings including China Bohai Bank, and residual items. Loss before tax of US$691m.

In the first half of 2026 on the re-presented three-segment basis, Corporate & Investment Banking earned US$6,901m of income and Wealth & Retail Banking US$4,925m, with Central and other items at negative US$222m.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Standard Chartered earns in two broad ways. It takes deposits (US$552,644m at 30 June 2026) and lends them out (US$299,279m of customer loans), capturing a net interest margin of just over 2 per cent. Alongside that it earns fees and trading income from moving money and risk across borders: net fee and commission income of US$4,249m and net trading income of US$10,294m in 2025 on the statutory basis. The second stream has been growing faster, and non-interest income rose 8 per cent in the first half of 2026 against 4 per cent for adjusted net interest income.

Where the moat sits. The defensible part of the franchise is not scale, because the bank is roughly a fifth the size of HSBC. It is the licence footprint. Operating in 55 markets, with local clearing and settlement capability in currencies most global banks do not touch, means Standard Chartered is often the only international bank that can complete a payment or a trade finance transaction along a particular corridor. That produces sticky corporate relationships and a transaction banking business that funds itself with cheap operating deposits.

The second moat is affluent client gravity. Wealth & Retail Banking has become a magnet for internationally mobile Asian and Middle Eastern wealth. Around two-thirds of net new money in the first half of 2026 came from international clients, affluent income reached 73 per cent of segment income against 44 per cent a decade earlier, and the bank describes itself as the third largest and fastest growing wealth manager in Asia. Because these clients bank across jurisdictions, the network and the wealth business reinforce each other.

What it costs to run. The trade-off is a heavy fixed cost base and a demanding compliance burden. Underlying operating expenses were US$12,347m in 2025 and the group has stated it has no appetite for breaches of financial crime laws, which in practice means a permanently elevated control spend. The Fit for Growth programme has delivered US$754m of run-rate savings through more than 300 initiatives, at a cost of US$531m charged in 2025 alone, and 2026 is the final year of those charges. You can follow the price action on our Live Charts page.

5. Financial Health

Standard Chartered reports in US dollars and its financial year is the calendar year. The annual table below uses underlying operating income, which was the group's primary performance measure through 2025. From 1 January 2026 the group reports on a reported basis only.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m, underlying operating income)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	14,713	-0.4%	61.3c	76.2c	12c	$77,939m
FY2022	16,255	+10.5%	85.9c	101.1c	18c	$74,957m
FY2023	17,378	+6.9%	108.6c	128.9c	27c	$74,582m
FY2024	19,696	+13.3%	141.3c	168.1c	37c	$74,991m
FY2025	20,894	+6.1%	195.4c	229.7c	61c	$81,692m

GAAP EPS is reported basic earnings per share and Adjusted EPS is the group's own underlying basic earnings per share. For a bank the meaningful long-term debt measure is wholesale funding rather than corporate borrowings, so the final column is debt securities in issue plus subordinated liabilities and other borrowed funds. At 31 December 2025 that was US$72,858m plus US$8,834m; at 31 December 2024 it was US$64,609m plus US$10,382m. The 2025 increase reflects roughly US$8bn of additional debt securities in issue. At 30 June 2026 the combined figure had risen further to US$88,149m after US$9.0bn of loss-absorbing capital issuance in the first half.

The FY2025 dividend of 61 cents is the company's own stated full-year figure and represents a 65 per cent increase. The arithmetic sum of the 12.3 cent interim and 49 cent final is 61.3 cents.

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 2026	$5,702m	77.4c†	77.4c
Q1 2026	$5,902m	74.2c†	74.2c
H2 2025	$10,036m‡	66.3c†‡	66.3c‡
H1 2025	$10,906m	129.1c†	129.1c
FY2025 total	$20,942m	229.7c	195.4c

† Standard Chartered discontinued underlying reporting from 1 January 2026 and has never published underlying earnings per share on a quarterly basis, so reported basic earnings per share is repeated in the Adjusted EPS column for those periods. The FY2025 figure of 229.7 cents is the company's own full-year underlying basic earnings per share.

‡ Second half 2025 figures are derived as the full year less the first half. Note that the quarterly and half-year revenue rows are on the reported basis, which is the only basis the group publishes quarterly. Reported operating income for FY2025 was US$20,942m against underlying operating income of US$20,894m, a difference of US$48m.

Balance sheet and capital position: total assets grew 8 per cent to US$993,406m in the six months to 30 June 2026, total equity was US$55,893m, risk-weighted assets were US$261,451m and the common equity tier 1 ratio was 14.2 per cent. Net asset value per share was 2,047 cents and tangible net asset value per share was 1,755 cents, up 4 per cent year on year. The liquidity coverage ratio was 148.4 per cent. Credit impairment of US$446m in the first half equated to an annualised loan loss rate of 26 basis points, against 19 basis points for the whole of 2025.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, August 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Market cap	£48.6bn (approximately US$65.6bn), at a 2,195p close on 10 August 2026 and 2,190m shares outstanding
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	13.6x on trailing twelve-month reported basic EPS of 217.9 cents (Q2 2026 77.4c plus Q1 2026 74.2c plus H2 2025 66.3c), using a share price of US$29.61 (2,195p at GBP/USD 1.3490). On FY2025 reported basic EPS of 195.4 cents the multiple is 15.2x; on FY2025 underlying basic EPS of 229.7 cents it is 12.9x.
P/E (forward)	10.6x (2,195p divided by consensus forward earnings per share of 207p, per market data at 10 August 2026)
P/S (TTM)	3.03x (market cap of US$65.6bn divided by trailing twelve-month reported operating income of US$21,640m, being H1 2026 US$11,604m plus H2 2025 US$10,036m)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	n/m — not meaningful for a bank. Debt is raw material for lending rather than a financing choice, and EBITDA excludes net interest income, which is the largest single revenue line. Price to book is the relevant substitute and is shown below.
P/FCF	n/m — not meaningful for a bank. Standard Chartered does not report a capital-expenditure-based free cash flow, and operating cash flow is dominated by period-to-period movements in loans, deposits and trading assets rather than by trading performance.
Enterprise value	n/m — not meaningful for a bank, for the reasons given above. For scale, total equity was US$55,893m and total assets US$993,406m at 30 June 2026.
Price/book	1.45x on net asset value per share of 2,047 cents at 30 June 2026 (approximately £15.17 at GBP/USD 1.3490). On tangible net asset value per share of 1,755 cents the multiple is 1.69x.
Dividend yield	2.06% on the FY2025 dividend of 61 cents (approximately 45.2p). The 2026 interim alone was 20.4 cents.
52-week high	2,278p
52-week low	1,285p
Short interest (% of float)	0.20% of issued share capital. Under the UK Short Selling Regulations 2025, which took effect on 13 July 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority publishes only anonymised aggregate net short positions; this is the aggregate figure for Standard Chartered in the FCA file, at the 0.2 per cent minimum reporting threshold.
Days to cover	n/a — not published for the London ordinary line. The FCA aggregate net short position disclosure does not include share counts or average volume, and the US over-the-counter line is not the primary listing.

7. What Are They Building

At an investor event in Hong Kong on 19 May 2026 the group set out a new set of medium-term targets, replacing the 2024 to 2026 plan it had already beaten a year early. The stated targets are a return on tangible equity above 15 per cent in 2028, building to approximately 18 per cent in 2030; a high-teens compound annual growth rate in earnings per share and 5 to 7 per cent income growth between 2025 and 2028; a cost-to-income ratio excluding notable items of approximately 57 per cent in 2028 against 63 per cent in 2025; a common equity tier 1 range of 13 to 14 per cent; a through-the-cycle loan loss ratio of 30 to 35 basis points; and a dividend payout ratio of 30 per cent or more with a progressive dividend per share.

The engine of that plan is wealth. Wealth & Retail Banking has pulled forward its previously stated ambitions from 2029 to 2028, including US$200bn of net new money and affluent income reaching 75 per cent of segment income. Affluent assets under management stood at US$473bn at 30 June 2026, split between US$216bn of deposits and US$258bn of wealth assets, after roughly 150,000 new affluent clients were onboarded in the first half. Wealth Solutions income has compounded at 28 per cent.

The second workstream is cost and headcount. Fit for Growth is in its final year of charges, having delivered US$754m of run-rate savings. Alongside it, the group announced in May 2026 that it expects to reduce roughly 7,000 roles phased through to 2030, concentrated in back-office locations including Chennai, Bengaluru, Kuala Lumpur and Warsaw, framed around automation and artificial intelligence rather than a conventional cost cut. Management has targeted income per employee rising approximately 20 per cent by 2028.

The third area is digital assets and digital banking, where the bank has moved earlier than most large peers. Both digital banks reached profitability in 2026, with Mox profitable in the first half and Trust Bank recording four consecutive profitable months from March to June. On the institutional side the group has launched the first globally systemic bank-led integrated access to USDC minting and redemption with Circle, the first such institutional crypto custody offering in Hong Kong, and digital asset prime brokerage with LMAX Group. Client digital transaction initiation in the corporate bank reached 72.1 per cent in 2025.

8. Competitive Landscape

Standard Chartered competes with global network banks for cross-border corporate flows and with Asian regional champions for affluent wealth. Market capitalisations below were checked on 10 August 2026.

Peer	Market cap (August 2026)	Key 2025 metric
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)	£262.2bn (approximately US$353.7bn)	FY2025 reported profit before tax of US$29.9bn, down 7%; US$36.6bn excluding notable items, up 7%; reported return on tangible equity 13.3%
DBS Group (D05)	S$217.1bn (approximately US$169.7bn)	FY2025 record profit before tax of S$13.1bn; net profit S$11.0bn; return on tangible equity 17.8%; cost-income ratio 40%
Barclays (BARC)	£69.5bn	FY2025 profit before tax of £9.1bn, up 13%; return on tangible equity 11.3%; CET1 ratio 14.3%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY)	£67.0bn	FY2025 statutory profit before tax of £6.7bn, up 12%; return on tangible equity 12.9%; full-year dividend 3.65p
NatWest Group (NWG)	£56.7bn	FY2025 statutory profit before tax of £7.7bn; return on tangible equity 19.2%; total income £16.6bn, up 13.2%

The comparison that matters most is HSBC, which is roughly five times larger by market value and competes directly in Hong Kong, Singapore, India and the Middle East. Standard Chartered's answer has been to specialise rather than match scale: a narrower affluent and corporate client set, a heavier weighting to frontier and emerging markets, and a wealth business growing from a smaller base. Against the UK domestic banks, Standard Chartered offers almost no exposure to the British mortgage or consumer credit cycle. Against DBS, it trades at a materially lower multiple of book but also earns a lower return on tangible equity. Keep an eye on results dates with our Economic Calendar.

9. Insider Activity

Group Chief Executive Bill Winters sold 300,000 ordinary shares on 4 August 2026 at £22.208, stated in the regulatory announcement as being for financial planning purposes. He retains 3.7m shares, worth approximately £81.4m at that price and described as significantly above the shareholding requirement for his role. This is the only genuinely discretionary open-market sale by a person discharging managerial responsibilities so far in 2026. The March 2026 transactions below are the vesting of deferred share awards, several of them accelerated under the Prudential Regulation Authority statement on remuneration reform published in October 2025, together with the automatic sales that fund income tax on those vestings.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Bill Winters	04 Aug 2026	Sale	300,000	£22.208	£6,662,400	Open-market discretionary sale
Roberto Hoornweg	13 Mar 2026	Vesting	236,682	£15.705	£3,717,091	2021 SC Share Plan deferred award
Roberto Hoornweg	13 Mar 2026	Sale	58,787	£15.705	£923,250	Automatic sale to fund income tax
Benjamin Hung	13 Mar 2026	Vesting	34,926	£15.705	£548,513	Deferred share award
Judy Hsu	13 Mar 2026	Vesting	32,988	£15.705	£518,076	Deferred share award
Tanuj Kapilashrami	13 Mar 2026	Sale	11,006	£15.705	£172,849	Automatic sale to fund income tax
Pete Burrill	13 Mar 2026	Vesting	8,515	£15.705	£133,728	Deferred share award

Board and executive changes are worth noting alongside the dealings. The chief financial officer role changed twice in 2026: Diego De Giorgi stepped down in February, Pete Burrill served as interim Group Chief Financial Officer and signed the FY2025 accounts, and Manus Costello was confirmed in the permanent role in July 2026 following regulatory approval. Maria Ramos completed her first full year as Group Chair in 2025. Tanate Phutrakul, formerly Group Chief Financial Officer of ING, joined the board in June 2026.

10. Key Risks

• Interest rate sensitivity: net interest margin fell to 2.03 per cent in 2025 and net interest income grew only 1 per cent. Payments and Liquidity income fell 10 per cent on lower rates and Deposits and Mortgages income fell 2 per cent. Guidance for 2026 net interest income was upgraded only to low single-digit growth, so a faster rate-cutting cycle would bear directly on the largest income line.
• Material litigation: three companies in liquidation are pursuing Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) for US$2.7bn in a claim filed in June 2025, and claimants in an Australian satellite financing action assert loss and damage of up to US$4.81bn with trial listed for the second quarter of 2026. The group denies liability in both and states that the accounting threshold for recognising a provision has not been met, which means neither is reflected in the balance sheet.
• Geopolitical and sovereign concentration: the bank holds a US$87m overlay against Bangladesh, US$22m against Korea and US$59m against the risk of sovereign downgrades across higher-risk footprint markets, and one of its two downside credit scenarios at the half year was a sustained Middle East conflict weighted at 30 per cent. Impairments in the first half of 2026 were driven mostly by Middle East overlays.
• Commercial real estate exposure: Hong Kong commercial real estate lending was US$1.6bn at 30 June 2026 with a US$47m overlay retained, and the group's disclosure states that pressure on property prices, interest serviceability and repayment capacity increased during 2026 and that the risk of further impairment remains.
• Execution and restructuring risk: the headline return target sits in 2030 and depends on cutting corporate functions roles by more than 15 per cent, removing roughly 7,000 positions and lifting income per employee by approximately 20 per cent by 2028. Cost programmes of this length frequently slip, and 2026 is the last year in which Fit for Growth charges are budgeted.
• Financial crime and compliance: the group operates in 55 markets and states it has no appetite for breaches of financial crime laws, but the sanctions landscape is fragmenting across regimes. The Korean equity-linked securities matter, which resulted in an industry-wide 600bn won penalty decided in June 2026, is a recent illustration of conduct risk crystallising into a cash cost.
• Africa and market exits: the group is exploring a full sale of Standard Chartered Bank Botswana, announced in January 2026 and expected to take 12 to 15 months, continuing a multi-year retreat from African markets. Disposals of this kind carry execution, regulatory and valuation risk and shrink the network the franchise is built on.

11. Recent Developments

• 04 Aug 2026 — Group Chief Executive sells 300,000 shares. Bill Winters disposed of 300,000 ordinary shares at £22.208, stated as being for financial planning purposes, retaining 3.7m shares.
• 30 Jul 2026 — US$1.0bn buyback commences. The programme runs from 30 July 2026 to no later than 29 January 2027, covering up to 201,451,712 ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange and Cboe Europe, with all repurchased shares to be cancelled.
• 29 Jul 2026 — Half year results beat and guidance upgraded. Operating income of US$11,604m and profit before tax of US$4,784m were both records, earnings per share rose 17 per cent, return on tangible equity reached 17.6 per cent, and the interim dividend rose 66 per cent to 20.4 cents. Full-year income growth guidance moved from the bottom end to around the middle of the 5 to 7 per cent range, and net interest income guidance moved from broadly flat to low single-digit growth.
• 04 Jun 2026 — Korean regulator finalises equity-linked securities penalties. The Financial Supervisory Service sanctions committee cut the proposed industry-wide fine to 600bn won across five banks including Standard Chartered Bank Korea, allowing a US$74m release of provisions in the second quarter.
• 19 May 2026 — Investor event sets 2028 and 2030 targets. The group targeted return on tangible equity above 15 per cent in 2028 and approximately 18 per cent in 2030, a cost-to-income ratio of approximately 57 per cent in 2028, and a payout ratio of 30 per cent or more. It also outlined a reduction of roughly 7,000 roles phased to 2030.
• 30 Apr 2026 — Record first quarter. Operating income of US$5,902m rose 10 per cent, profit before tax rose 17 per cent to US$2,450m and return on tangible equity reached 17.4 per cent, though credit impairment rose to US$296m including US$190m of precautionary Middle East overlays.
• 24 Feb 2026 — FY2025 results and capital return. Underlying return on tangible equity of 14.7 per cent cleared the three-year plan a year early, the dividend rose 65 per cent to 61 cents, and a US$1.5bn buyback was announced, taking distributions announced since the FY2023 results to US$9.1bn.
• Jan 2026 to Dec 2025 — Botswana review and litigation settlement. In January 2026 the group began exploring a full sale of its Botswana business. In December 2025 it settled the long-running English High Court claims brought by more than 200 shareholders over historic sanctions and financial crime disclosures, a matter press reports had sized at approximately £1.5bn; the group's 2025 accounts state the matter is now concluded.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 19 Aug 2026 — 2026 Half Year Report posted to shareholders and filed with the National Storage Mechanism
• 29 Sep 2026 — 2026 interim dividend of 20.4 cents per share paid
• 28 Oct 2026 — Q3 2026 results, the next scheduled earnings release
• 29 Jan 2027 — Latest date for completion of the US$1.0bn buyback announced on 29 July 2026
• 19 Feb 2027 — FY2026 results and 2026 final dividend announcement
• Expected May 2027 — 2027 Annual General Meeting; the 2026 meeting was held on 7 May 2026 and the 2027 date has not yet been published

The Australian satellite financing trial was listed to begin in the second quarter of 2026 and no outcome has been published; the group has not given a revised date. Company financial calendar dates are described by Standard Chartered as provisional and subject to change. Discuss these dates with other investors in our Forum.

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