StanChart faces unsteady markets

摘要

Standard chartered has reported its first pretax profit decline in a decade and warned that trading performance across the group in the first half is likely to look weak relative to the same period last year. The alert came as the bank reported full-year 2013 results, including a 2% drop to US$11.49bn in wholesale income. Overall, the group said pre-tax profit fell 7% year-on-year to US$7bn, leading to a 15% cut in the bonus pool to US$1.2bn. The Asia-focused bank was the first major player to warn the market last November that rates trading remained under pressure, with no pick-up in the offing since fears that the US Federal Reserve would start to reverse its quantitative-easing programme first spooked the market last May.