Standard Chartered private banking arm has posted operating income of $304m for the six months ended 30 June 2015, a decline of 3% compared with $314m a year ago.
The decline was due to the exit of Geneva business and client transfers to the Retail Client segment in Jersey. Excluding these items, income grew 4% and assets under management rose 9% driven by strong business momentum in Greater China.
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The bank said that the unit’s operating profit fell 96% to $3m from $71m a year ago impacted by increased impairment provisioning.
Operating expenses stood at $208m, a decrease of 8% from $227bn a year earlier.
Operating income in the wealth management segment was $952m, up 17% compared to $817m in the first half of 2014, driven by active client advisory and rebalancing activities supported by favourable market conditions.
AuM at the wealth division grew strongly as a result of supportive market conditions and net new money into Managed Investments and Equities due to a stronger value proposition.
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By GlobalDataOverall, Standard Chartered group’s profit before tax for the first half of 2015 fell 44% to $1.82bn from $3.27bn a year ago. Operating income dropped 8% to $8.49bn from $9.27bn in the first half of 2014.
Standard Chartered chairman Sir John Peace said: "However, these actions have also impacted our return on equity, and combined with a disappointing earnings performance and the current near term outlook for the Group, the Board has decided to reduce the dividend by 50 per cent. The Board and newly announced Management Team are committed to build a business that will deliver significantly better returns for our shareholders."
