Standard Chartered Bank, the largest international bank in India, will invest $250 million in its Indian operations, raising the total capital base to $1.9 billion. Peter Sands, group chief executive of the Standard Chartered Plc said, ?We have invested $250 million in our banking business in India, strengthening our growth in the capital adequacy and wholesale and consumer banking in the country. The investment is likely to bolster the capital adequacy of the bank by 10-11%.?
The UK-based bank, which has reported an income of $11 billion and almost $4 billion profit in 2007, earns more than three quarter of its profit from Asia. ?While India?s share of total revenue is 17%, Asia?s share would be more than 80% in 2007,? Sands said. Present here to celebrate the 150th year of the bank?s first branch in India, Sands said, ?There is a lot of turbulence in the financial markets, there is food price inflation and a lot of movement in the currency and interest markets. We are continuing to invest to grow our businesses in India and elsewhere.?
Standard Chartered launched private banking in May 2007 and had $10 billion under asset management by the end of the year. ?With the acquisition of American Express Bank, the asset under management would go up to $30 billion,? Sands said.The group is setting up a $500 million micro-finance facility and is planning to partner with more than 20 micro-finance institutions by 2008. ?I would expect India?s share to be somewhere in the region of 25-30% of that figure,? he said.
Standard Chartered Bank, which has acquired 49% of UTI Securities last year, is planning to divest the commodity-trading unit of the newly formed Standard Chartered STCI Capital markets owing to government regulations. Neeraj Swarup, chief executive of India and South Asia said the bank is in a fairly advanced stage of forming the asset reconstruction company proposed earlier.