July 31, 2023: On Friday, Standard Chartered expressed that first-half pretax profit rose 20% and announced a further $1 billion share buyback, as rising rates and record financial markets business propelled margins at the emerging markets-focused lender.

StanChart, making most of its earnings in Asia, expressed statutory pretax profit for the six months of this year earned $3.32 billion. That compared with $2.77 billion a year earlier and the $3.18 billion average of 16 analyst estimates collected by the bank.

The bank boosted its recommendation for revenue growth in 2023 to a 12%-14% range from 10%.

“We are mindful of the outer macroeconomic headwinds and recent challenges in the banking sector; nevertheless, our balance sheet is robust, and we have the right strategy, company representative, and ambition to deliver our marks,” CEO Bill Winters stated.

The bank said income growth outpaced increases in costs, despite inflation pushing up the latter, causing a three percentage point revision to its cost-income ratio to 61% for the initial half.

London-headquartered StanChart’s transaction banking income shot up 92% to $2.86 billion, with cash administration income up 166%, benefiting from favorable interest rates.

Its financial markets business delivered a document of $2.8 billion in income in the first half, a 4% increase from an intense period a year ago on the back of energy price swings.